(apologies for the sound on this one. refrigerator compressor hum.)
(no time for a second take....)
(think of it as an "environmental" recording.)
(me in my environment. the closed café, late at night.)
we play here
in the fuzziest of maths
our paths diverge from
us even as we are
on the verge of
pushing parallels
until they converge
at the horizon
no conflict of interest
our interests engulf us
and all the world around us
is there really a point
where one day becomes another?
a line demarcating one from the next?
a border in time?
a break in the line?
there are no breaks
only endings and beginnings
endlessly beginning
there is no border between
one moment and the next
a line in the sand perhaps
but this is just
a billion grains of silica
marking the borders of a negative space
where the idea of a line lives
one grouping of grains marks where
one grouping of grains ends and
another begins?
one ending begins and
one beginning ends?
until the sands shift again
~~~~~~
we play here in an endless sandbox
our rules engage us in the
game of rules
the horizontal is always
flat
while our horizon forever rounds
a strangeness of circles
embraced by sand
these grains embrace us and
we forget
our lines
this sand loves us and
loves for us to forget
this silica wants to make
blue glass marbles
to circle about us
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… I shift, therefore I’m sand …
…beginninglessly…no…
Thanks for keeping it going. I’m enjoying your cartography series. So is my husband. I need a map right now.
I need a map of all the maps….
So glad you are both enjoying!
🙂
Those last three lines – what a surprise! I love them. Scale is always interesting, isn’t it? Things are often all happening on the edges, but where did the edges go? I enjoyed listening, too. The hum adds something – a mesmerizing quality.
Thank you, Lynn–I think the edges are where the action is. I am reminded of fractals–the Mandelbrodt Set. Are you familiar? The edges never end….the scaling goes on endlessly…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set
Way too dense! But I get the idea… 🙂
Oh, yes. I can be incredibly dense, for sure. 😉
Somehow this makes me think of an Etch-a-Sketch. Go figure… 🙂 Thanks for turning these ideas of lines into circles and back again.
Ha! Thank you for that take on it. Always refreshing to see my ideas bounced back in new ways.
I am rediscovering your poetry. What a gift.
YOU are a gift!
Thank you Natalie.
You have a really nice voice. Gentle.
Thank you Ashley–I like that much better than wimpy. I always wanted a rich baritone…..
The humming sound adds something, it gives me a feeling of flying, it’s the motor of the aircraft, as we fly over the desert. That moment of transition, transfer from one place to another. Time to think. No need to make a new recording!
Thank you, dear. These things are all about the horizon, the cusp, the borderlands…..
I am now thinking of all the noisy places in my life that I can record a poem…..
Really wonderful … love the use of all the sand images: the smallest grain, to the larger, deeper images — love, memory, time.
Great reading as well.
Thank yOu, John–