Saturday, October 31, 2015

Halloween Poem --Pile de Volta






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. 

 

12 comments:

  1. A very apt observation of the complex simplicity of poetry. If an irreducible spark is achieved, it's sufficient satisfaction.

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    1. Thanks Jon. I included pics of antique electrical instruments because the mad scientist in all us boys can't laugh maniacally among modern ones.

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  2. You created a powerful spark this time.

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    1. Kind Emma, after studying electricity since childhood I conclude it is magic. Consider the internet.

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  3. What 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 :-)

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    1. Bertrand 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.

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  4. I love the image of wordstacks! Indeed we are ideas clothed in flesh.

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    1. Hopefully, it also implies we can be conductors of light --as you have demonstrated in your profession.

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  5. Couldn't agree more. Love the analogy.

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  6. Maybe we are just ideas....or perhaps figments of someone's imagination?

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    1. An imaginative idea, with which I'm inclined to agree.

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