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RE: Inquiry - a poem for the Writing Impact Challenge
Nicely done - I shy away from accepting any of these word list challenges, in most part because I am hopelessly afraid to fail.
I like the way your piece has gone full-circle from it's initial proposition to rest again with magic. I'm not certain it is what you were suggesting, but i am left with this: that 'not knowing, being unable to predict, train, determine everything' is not a dirty word.
Yes! That's exactly what I'm saying @trumanity. I think there's a certain fatal hubris in the assumption that we should, or are even capable of, mastering the universe by dissecting it.
I'm glad that you enjoyed the piece, thanks for your comments and your insightful interpretation! :)
I am glad I was not completely off the mark, @bennettitalia. Your response has enlightened me further to another nuance I had initially missed in your poem. I thank you for that. The dissection of things entails the killing of it's nature; it's composite (dead) parts may not necessarily lead us to an understanding of the totality of the living thing. One may miss, in it's dead form, an appreciation of the context of it's being. Sorry to probe once again, but your line referencing it's neatly folded secrets implies the thing itself has folded its secrets away, or another supreme hand has done so? I suppose either is potentially a viable answer and not knowing this is perhaps more valuable than knowing the secret.
I am glad to engage with your material and yourself. I continue to follow.
No, you were spot on :) Difficult to know sometimes whether you've conveyed the thing you want to convey in a poem... thank you for reflecting to me.
Hmmm... I think, for the protagonist, there is no question of God. The "you" in the poem is on a different kind of search, one that seeks to simplify what refuses to be simple. God, magic, nature, biology, chemistry, physics, the opposite sex, ourselves... everything refuses to be straightforward enough for us to pin it down. And really, why would we want it to be? A live butterfly moving through the air is far more interesting than one mounted in a case. Acquisitiveness and inquisitiveness motivate in very different ways.
I'm enjoying the philosophical turn this conversation is taking. When poetry transitions into philosophy you know it's doing at least part of its job ;) Looking forward to checking out your work once I'm through my current crunch in a couple of days.
It is very interesting to sound off ideas like this. We ought to connect on the isle of write some time. Thanks.
That would be great :) Same name?
I go by the name
bushgradover there.