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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:

. said...

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.

Anonymous said...

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

TC said...

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.

~otto~ said...

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.

Anonymous said...

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

TC said...

Thanks, guys.

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

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