The Whole World

I know, my friends, it has been long…but not too long: let’s begin

How hard to stretch the mind to higher cause

And art’s true virtues into life imbue

By holding tight to breath and breadth impart

To naught but heart and minds purview

 

And to keep that realm amidst the tattered throes

of friend and foe alike who do not know

what glory seen amidst the vaulted

rise, ethereal interior skies

 

How hard to keep aloft what naught

but soul and mind sustain

like transparent scaffolds, limbs remain

to uphold with airy force what little more

than butterfly wings could destroy

 

But that they may gaze upon the truth

of such beauty rarified;

it exists! And so I must in you,

my friend, confide to save

this world, I give my back.

I Atlas

and you

my world

 

 

Riddle Me Monday

Simple! It’s Monday: I give you a riddle, you try to solve it!
(Hint Hint: It will deal with the themes of the previous week. Comment to guess the answer!)

But try do I to count that which
the human race’s future dreads
as little more than I can fathom
sideways blows the paper shreds.

Who am I?

Simple Complexities: The Sonnet

Continuing where we left off, taking the molecule and delving deeper to the core. I’ve just finished research on the intriguing development of the first nuclear reaction, from its brain child in the first Solvay conferences, to its materialization (or more appropriately, de-materialization) in the form of the trinity test. Side note that I’ve never liked how science, news, or pop culture have utilized religious nomenclature to apply to secular things. It has always bothered me.

Sophomore: But hey hypocrite, you were comparing molecules to angels and the Trinity in the last post! And you just stole “nomenclature” from the pagan Romans.
Me: Step off son, we put the Holy in Holy Roman Empire. Just listen to my boy Athanasius… *hands-off mic* (24 min rap solo by Athanasius Kircher.) “We Put the Holy in Your Holiday” single, in stores Dec 1st.
Wow, I was going to have this post be all somber and dark, quick in quick out, but it’s morphed for sure.

Snapping back to reality; that’s how I feel about the name of the trinity test. But the thing that intrigued me was Oppenheimer’s inspiration for naming the test “trinity” . For even he, as he was experimenting with the powers of the universe, could discern from what source the powers came. That he was witnessing it. Understanding it. Materializing it.

Would not God, who let the hand of Thomas touch His hands and side
let those probe the depths of the heavens, read the rays of the skies
just so that they might know and believe in Him?

Oppenheimer’s test codename was sourced from John Donne’s poem. (Yes, the same John Donne gave Hemingway the line “For whom the bell tolls”.) The sonnet below:

Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

I, like an usurp’d town to another due,
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue.

Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov’d fain,
But am betroth’d unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

The sonnet is so complex in its inter-phrase rhythm, patterned rhyme, and symbolic nouns. It by its constituent parts can be subject to utter academic and scholarly scrutiny and made into endless typologies. Why? Because the crafting of a sonnet is an art. The art of mapping the complexity of rhyme and rhythm with the symbolic nouns and adjectives.

But probe the depths even deeper. See what inspired him to choose Donne’s poem in the first place. Remorse. Repentance. The need to be built up again. Acknowledging the power of God is beyond our power, and earthly powers because it is He that wrought them all.

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Lonesome Landscape

Sorry about the lack of internet presence. I had made some draft posts that stagnated before I have a driving-home-song-lyric-inspiration (which happens more often than you’d think). I’ve had an idea for years to boogie-woogie the Seven Brides song Polecat. But in the midst of a more melancholy ride home, humming the tune all the way, a verse came to me that suited just where my heart was at the time.

My mind
a lonesome landscape.
Tundra, blowing crisp and cool.
Whisper words, dear-
closer beside me–
that’s my warmer fuel.

It fits right in there with the second verse with all the nice tenor descants.
Snow’s a coming, but you know the word; just say it.
Till next time-

SevenBrides2

Also, you might enjoy this version too:

http://story-monster.blogspot.com/2014/04/7-brothers-for-7-brides.html

City Skies

City sky
Headlines the day
amidst the river flows,
and echoes fade through boulevards
awaiting winter snows.

The Sun, with warmth, makes covenant
while tempest’s chill deceives
Sunshine, it glows
the north wind blows,
cascading waves of leaves.

Storm rivers subterranea.
Steam-heat inverted sieves.

Wind whisps the story of the day in cirrostratus lines
pale blue twilight welcomes the night, headlining city skies.
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In The Beginning

Welcome! A good friend so kindly told me, “you have a poet’s heart,” and so by their kind prompting, I will gently shower these pages with what art God inspires. We’ll look at the art of life, of mind, of paint & script; pretty much art where ever and when ever it’s found!

This site also serves a dual purpose for me, and in the spirit of realizing the gifts each is given on the way-to help and guide and grace others (and to encourage them to share their poems & art, too!) – I commit this first poem of the site:

As we help each other up the mountain cleft
out of the valley, dark, with life bereft,
anxiety
do we
not heed:
for Love –
fills all our lives, with twelve full baskets left.