Monday, July 23, 2007

Poetry Train Monday - 11 - Spatiotemporal Limits

This poem came from a creative cycle while I was in university.


Spatiotemporal Limits


Antigone only guessed at the voices
Which whispered their laws
Though Kubrick's apes
Swayed to the music of the spheres
Gazing upon the implacable
Face of the monolith

Were these the same angels
Who mixed the paints
For Kandinsky to dip his brushes
His planetary musings
Were they actually cells dividing
Could these forms
These colors
Be molecules
Or solar roundabouts
Obelisks
Or untabulated laws
Did Sophocles feel them too
On that Meditteranean morning
So many rotations ago?


1993 Copyright Julia Smith

19 comments:

Rhian said...

oh damn Julia - this was brilliant and literally broke me out in goosebumps - i swear. Rich like chocolate and full of delicious flavor and symbols.

Rebecca said...

wow - I'm impressed, Julia!

Unknown said...

Love this, Julia! Anything that references 2001 is stellar in my books.

Did you get my email?

Amy Ruttan said...

Wow, I just posted my poem and it sucks compared to this. WOW, great job.

Anonymous said...

Lorentz Transforms,
Non-Euclidean Geometry,
Meditteranean mornings,
Antigone and Sophocles.

The works! Brava!

Camille Alexa said...

It's turning out to be a mad, mad, mad poetry weekend!

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

I'm standing on the roof of my house. It's a two-story. Three over the driveway.

This is still over my head.

*sigh*

But I do get some sort of connection, a spark that all creative people share.

Can I come down from the roof now? It's pretty steep up here.

Red Garnier said...

This is genius, Julia!!! WOW!!! And Kandisky...I shudder at the word. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE his work. And yours, my friend. (How's that for schmoozing?) Cause I could maybe add something more so you truly, deeply feel the lurv? =)

Your poem is the PERFECT WAY TO START THE WEEK!!

Ann said...

Awesome poem. That was too cool. Definitely the perfect way to start the week.

Anonymous said...

Wow, that's a wonderful poem -- and I loved the 2001 and Kandinsky references, too! :)

Joy Renee said...

Awesome. Reminds me that my aspiarations as an artist rests on something immensely ancient. That those whispering voices only guessed at and angels stirring paints (colors? concepts?) are the true source of our creations; not our egos.

Miss Frou Frou said...

And Rhian wonders why I don't post any poems! This, as usual, was excellent... hope the head is better!

R.G. ALEXANDER said...

COOL! Great poem-blew my mind.:)

charleneteglia said...

Love it.

Robin L. Rotham said...

I'm with Rhian -- brilliant! Nothing sets my world on fire like the collision of science, philosophy, and artistry. Awesome, Julia.

Lisa Andel said...

I've got to agree with Rhi, I got chills. Good going!

Unknown said...

WOW!

Absolutely awesome.

Anna J. Evans said...

I just can't believe I got all the references....for once. I'm usually such a cultural lamo i never know what anyone is talking about, lol.

Wonderful poem Julia. The hairs at the back of my neck got prickly :).

Anna J. Evans

John said...

I like the phrase “so many rotations ago”—it brings the concept of time home in a new, unique way.