Saturday 22 May 2010

The Astronomer


.





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.

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

    ReplyDelete
  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.

    ReplyDelete
  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.

    ReplyDelete
  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

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks, guys.

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

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

    ReplyDelete