.
Die Schiefe Ebene der Szalajkabahn in Ungarn: photo by E. Scherer, 2007
All the while I was
being numbered and
stored by history
as an example
of something
as flat and thin
as a picture
in a textbook
or an image
on film
I remained under
the illusion I was
merely living
being numbered and
stored by history
as an example
of something
as flat and thin
as a picture
in a textbook
or an image
on film
I remained under
the illusion I was
merely living
Goldfinches: photo by Monster 2000, 2008
this one seems too perfect for words!
ReplyDeleteYour wondrous poems are proof that you are not numbered or stored =)
ReplyDeleteWith friends like Lanny and Lucy I am able to happily remain under the illusion that I am merely living and have not yet been reduced to a line of text, zeroes and ones--not because I know that I am alive but because I know that you are.
ReplyDeleteLet me quote somebody for this beautifull post, accompanied by an amazing picture of nature on the top, I like it because it goes with the text, although is nature is kind of sad, kinda hurts.
ReplyDelete"We ride the high winds of reason
where the air is thin and cold.
We cry out in wild abandon
when diving into the lush valleys of empiricism."
Seems here empirist won
take care my good friend
Mariana,
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid you've caught me with my empiricism down.
Is not that a lovely picture, though? A sense of the meaning of "path" as a gently made human (life?) channel seems very present there, amid those sere autumnal shades of grey.
Thanks as always for coming, Abrazos
The turns I love in this poem are the syntactical ambiguity of the line "of something", allowing you to be either an example of something flat and thin or a flat and thin example (of something that might or might not be flat and thin), and the ensuing ambiguity of whether "illusion" is used ironically or not (perfectly distilled by having the line itself read "the illusion I was"). There is something jewel-like about this one...
ReplyDeleteYes, I do like those two little areas of question that warp an apparently transparent statement into something else again. "Jewel-like" is nice, who could say no it.
ReplyDeletebeauuuuutiful!
ReplyDeleteVery, very nice. If I had a noticeboard above my desk I would pin this poem up on it.
ReplyDeleteAnd goldfinches too!
Thank you my two wise friends.
ReplyDeleteZeph,
I had you in the back of my mind with those goldfinches.
(Just to spring them from the perfect cage of Fabritius at least.)