Our poems are wordstacks.
Each voltaic pile,
Once read, is replaced by
Something more --why?
What do we do this for?
One forces a charge
Up a column of copper
And disks of zinc.
One arranges in proper
Order all large and small
Ideas --one thinks
And puzzles then learns
To write all over again.
Each irreducible spark
Awaits its sudden arc
From foil layers in a
Leyden Jar, what a poem is
And what we are --ideas.
A very apt observation of the complex simplicity of poetry. If an irreducible spark is achieved, it's sufficient satisfaction.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jon. I included pics of antique electrical instruments because the mad scientist in all us boys can't laugh maniacally among modern ones.
DeleteYou created a powerful spark this time.
ReplyDeleteKind Emma, after studying electricity since childhood I conclude it is magic. Consider the internet.
DeleteWhat the Universe is made of - ideas - must be powered by the Irreducible Spark. And that is a most satisfying and beautiful idea in itself. Thank you for sharing :-)
ReplyDeleteBertrand Russell thought mind and matter are two ways of organizing events in the universe. This would seem to make the difference between ideation and circumstance less distinct.
DeleteI love the image of wordstacks! Indeed we are ideas clothed in flesh.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, it also implies we can be conductors of light --as you have demonstrated in your profession.
DeleteCouldn't agree more. Love the analogy.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lux. Most kind.
DeleteMaybe we are just ideas....or perhaps figments of someone's imagination?
ReplyDeleteAn imaginative idea, with which I'm inclined to agree.
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