Brain-scans

[PrinceMyshkin]

Poetry 101

Take any two
seemingly unrelated things from the universe
(both the actual universe
and the universe of thought),
connect them and

you will have a poem!


Thanks to Virgil for suggesting this thread

[vagantes]

No you won't: you wil have two disconnected thoughts/ideas which will be meaningless because there is no connection.

[Virgil]

Hahaha, I don't recall suggesting that. What thread? It's a really good idea, actually. You can for a poem that way, though as vagantes suggests, ultimately there has to be a link between the two, however tenuous that link is. It creates a metaphor.

[billl]

seemingly unrelated!

anyhow, not your best, but not nonsense. :)

[firefangled]

Poetry 101

Take any two
seemingly unrelated things from the universe
(both the actual universe
and the universe of thought),
connect them and

you will have a poem!


Thanks to Virgil for suggesting this thread

This is an excellent start of something, but the operative word in your directive is connect.

Maybe I missed something about the thread, because you have connected the inner and outer worlds superbly in poetry and recently in The Me That Is in the World.

[AuntShecky]

This is the philosophy behind metaphysical poetry, which Eliot disdained: "two disparate images yoked by violence together."

I heart Eliot, but I have to disagree with him on this one; remember what EMW Forster said about writing (the novel):
"only connect."

[PrinceMyshkin]

Hahaha, I don't recall suggesting that. What thread? It's a really good idea, actually. You can for a poem that way, though as vagantes suggests, ultimately there has to be a link between the two, however tenuous that link is. It creates a metaphor.

You said it apropos of a recent poem of mine, "Sometimes, life" about which you felt it might work better as the conclusion to a longer poem.

But my assertion is that there is always at least an inferrable link between any two things, even material and otherwise (see the Quantum Dynamics notion of non-locality) and it has been my understanding that via the use of ambiguity poetry has often been the exemplary means of suggesting the connection or overlap between things that the linearity of prose can not ordinarily present.

[symphony]

Poetry 101

Take any two
seemingly unrelated things from the universe
(both the actual universe
and the universe of thought),
connect them and

you will have a poem!


..and thus discover the connection yourself! This must be the core course for both Poetry and Intellection!

Good idea for a thread, Prince. Looking forward to more of these skims.

[firefangled]

But my assertion is that there is always at least an inferrable link between any two things, even material and otherwise (see the Quantum Dynamics notion of non-locality) and it has been my understanding that via the use of ambiguity poetry has often been the exemplary means of suggesting the connection or overlap between things that the linearity of prose can not ordinarily present.

An inferrable link between any two things is different than the unity between the parts of an inseparable whole system such as the quantum universe and the one in which we earn our daily bread. The two systems have different rules of existence that ambiguity cannot reconcile.

I think connections can be made poetically, but I don't think any two things can be said to be connected without manipulation and in many cases even mathmatical language would probably not succeed, much less non-mathmatical language. I'm not sure the code system comprised of words can be made subtle enough to do that, as much as I would like to say it was.

[paperleaves]

I suppose you said this earlier, but does not every one thing connect in some way or another? what a brilliant idea for a thread, jer, and what a beautiful link on which you have described it

[PrinceMyshkin]

I was alone with my head
on Ave. Esplanade between Van Horne and Bernard.
In my peripheral awareness were certain humanoid activities:

the shushhhhhhh of tires on asphalt,
the slap-slap-slap of sandals on pavement,
passionate ideological voices,
some plaintive or companionable ones,
the usual humanoid rumble and hum.

But my head was somewhere else
on some other street, in some other century.


___
originally posted by PrinceMyshkin on http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?p=755554#post755554

[PrinceMyshkin]

I wander through the ghost of myself
and recognize my daughter
and sons as they were at earlier ages
already aimed to become
the astonishing people they are,
parents of their own children.

But branches, of course,
can sprout other branches
and even ghosts
must wonder, at times,
what has become of themselves.


____
© 2009, J. Newman. This is an original work posted under the name of PrinceMyshkin on http://www.online-literature.com/forums/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=755554. Any unauthorized reproduction of it constitutes theft.

[breathtest]

I love your idea of a by line and a link under each of your poems. I think i shall start doing the same.

The last two poems are gems by the way, Prince. Real gems, really very touching.

[PrinceMyshkin]

An inferrable link between any two things is different than the unity between the parts of an inseparable whole system such as the quantum universe and the one in which we earn our daily bread. The two systems have different rules of existence that ambiguity cannot reconcile.

I think connections can be made poetically, but I don't think any two things can be said to be connected without manipulation and in many cases even mathmatical language would probably not succeed, much less non-mathmatical language. I'm not sure the code system comprised of words can be made subtle enough to do that, as much as I would like to say it was.

Sorry, I didn't see this earlier, when you posted it. My utterly non-scientific response would be that since, as John S. Haldane wrote: "The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine!" and since it seems amenable to our every imagining, why shouldn't a poetic connection be as valid as any other?

[PrinceMyshkin]

The author takes a picture
of his inner self but afterwards
cannot tell the subject
from the photographer.





________
© 2009, J. Newman. This is an original work posted under the name of PrinceMyshkin on http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?p=758612#post758612. Any unauthorized reproduction of it constitutes theft.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I am engaged with the mystery
of thisness and thusness, with the idea
that the idea
is all there is.

I lie on a fallow table
where reality invites me to dream
of itself.


____
______
© 2009, J. Newman. This is an original work posted under the name of PrinceMyshkin on http://www.online-literature.com/forums/. Any unauthorized reproduction of it constitutes theft.

[PrinceMyshkin]

All too often, there’s a voice
that says to me: Zei nit kein nahr
(Don’t be a fool)

but is that voice mine
or that of the nahr?