Saturday, 22 May 2010

The Astronomer


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Every minute
I've lived in
myself
I've lived
in someone
else
out there
said the astronomer
to himself










The Astronomer: Johannes Vermeer, c. 1668 (Musée du Louvre, Paris)

6 comments:

  1. Love this, Tom. Again, insightful pairing of words and images - introspectively close up, far away and of course the details. All about light, of which, Vermeer was a master of.

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  2. Impressive, effective and simple. Loved the parallelism between words and image. A jewel.

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  3. Many thanks Leigh and Lucy.

    I like the way this one worked out, the conversation between the images and the words became a little wedding.

    The glints on the jewel for me are those starlike points of light on the textured fabric folds in the immediate foreground of the close-up detail shot.

    And I think it is not immodest for me to say that because of course those stars were scattered there not by me but by the ineffable genius of Vermeer.

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  4. For me, this poem hinged on "to himself." Just swung it all around on itself and over and back again, made me do a twirl. I like twirling.

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  5. i love the astronomer
    peering at the stars
    being observed by distant
    astronomers

    - good lens tom


    refract and distort
    or reflect and flip
    turn left or right
    each decision
    a universe
    in which we each
    may live
    just in time

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  6. Thanks, guys.

    Absolutely a hinge poem, turning or twirling back upon itself.

    (Refraction happens when a wave breaks and turns back upon itself).

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