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Sunday 13 September 2009

Lecture


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File:Riesiger Cb mit mammatus.jpg





Elsewhere perhaps life was going on, the business of the world was being done, connections between individuals were being made, troths plighted, who knew, maybe even babies born.

The person speaking droned on.

In the third row someone yawned. A notetaker paused and glanced toward the window. Outside it was a bright spring day. Oxygen, carbon dioxide and sunshine conspired to produce undeniable evidence of natural process in the form of chlorophyll. The red end of the light spectrum having been largely banished from the atmosphere, a blueness perhaps reflecting some great water-mass prevailed in the patches of sky visible through the branches, across which also passed every now and then a lazy, buttery cloud. An oblivious bird tweeted on the other side of the glass. Time almost stood still.

Elsewhere perhaps life was going on...





File:Sky of Bangladesh 1.jpg





















Big cumulonimbus during a cold front, with cumulonimbus mammatus: photo by Simon Eugster, 2006
Sky from Bangladesh: photo by Mahmudul Karim Farsad, 2008

3 comments:

Andrew said...

Tom,

That "perhaps" in the last line really explodes open this poem, causing "the red end of the light spectrum" to shine out from its banishment. At least for those of us lucky enough to encounter this poem, which reminds us to give attention to the process of being that always surrounds us.

Anonymous said...

I love those instants in which we get away from the normal passing of time and everything around us stands still as if in a postcard that will remain forever printed on our memories.

These moments are so good for us...

TC said...

Yes, the power of the process of being seems able to explode the normal passing of time in an instant... perhaps.