.
Old Nipper's medication sent his pulse beneath the ground, where things looked familiar, yet where it could barely be detected. Years were going by in the canyons of the two-second spaces between the beats of his heart. It was as though a part of himself, his animal spirit as it were, the original Old Nipper immured inside his frail-staved ancient frame, had been planted or buried on a planet in a faraway galaxy where he had once dwelt but thereafter forever abandoned. That part of him still sent back radio signals, but he had long ago stopped bothering to monitor them. Still he appeared from a certain distance to remain alert as ever.
Nipper looking into an Edison Bell cylinder phonograph: photo by Francis Barraud, 1895
Beautiful, Tom. What a guy ("Old Nipper" I mean, or is it Tom, "alert as ever"?). And once again I note certain resonance to some things in today's 'offering' -- e.g., your "ground," "spaces," "original," "faraway," and "foreground," "space," "origin, a middle ground" here --
ReplyDelete1.4
red-orange cloud below shadowed branches
of trees, whiteness of moon above branch
in foreground, sound of waves in channel
therein the moment “against,”
space before entrance
after a different stage one,
origin, middle ground
sunlit white clouds to the left of point,
tree-lined green of ridge across from it
Parallel universes!
ReplyDeleteLike a dog
ReplyDeletewhich is the meaning
of the Greek root for cynic
and I would like to thank
those twenty-two or four or more
year old cynics who adhere to that definition
of being one who believes that human conduct is totally motivated by self-interest
for they have shown me that I am also a cynic
but one who believes as did the ancient Greek school
of Cynic philosophers who held that Virtue
is the Only Good
and its essences are independence and self-control.
Like a dog who sniffs at the passersby
lost or hungry
strong
affection starved
independent but longing for a change
you get mean
or you get meaning.
In other words
I am giving up
the distrust of my youth (when I knew everything
for the trust necessary for the spiritual
search for truth.
Finally
to answer those cynics
who will say that I will fail
though they will pose it as the question
what if I fail? I can only paraphrase
Monty Python
from ‘The Life of Brian’,
you come from nothing, you go to nothing,
so what have you got to lose?
Nothing!
Zev,
ReplyDeleteI think I get your meaning. It's a dog's life. But we always mean to be kind. Hope not to get kicked. Let the other mutt get the bone, in the event of any sort of disagreement. (And here I speak for myself: skulk away then without too much notice...)
Rachel,
Sorry for diverting your comment to here, in my delirium:
'"Years were going by in the canyons of the two-second spaces between the beats of his heart."
'Yes, here too. Thank you for putting words to it. Beautiful and terrifying post.
'Alert, as well, if I dare say it. . .'
Yes, it scares me too, a bit.
But I was scared already.