cursuswalker Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 I was ordained on Charles Darwin's 200th birthday, which makes me very proud considering my beliefs. A year ago a traumatic event occured on the day before Darwin Day that I will not detail. The end of this poem relates to events in my life on the day after.THE PHOTON’S TALE I wave And particle Goodbye to Aldebaran At my journey’s end Your Father is seven Your Mother four Paul Bernstein Norwegian Jew Physician Dies in Auschwitz Number 80024 Nikola Tesla Fascinated by my contradictions His papers on death rays nearby Lies dead On the 33rd Floor Of the Hotel New Yorker The Pentagon Begun 60 years to the day Before 9/11 Is nearly ready to open In Stalingrad The Germans are trapped. General Golikov’s army Prepares to attack The Hungarian Second Near Svoboda Meaning Freedom At Peenemunde The first flying bomb Is ready Cahir Healy Irish Nationalist One day Father of Stormont Enjoys his freedom After release from Brixton From where I am Cahir Healy Is being born Custer’s body Dead sixteen months Has been buried at west Point Nearly two Chiricahua Apaches Are moving to San Carlos “a place of death” In Bulgaria The Russians have besieged Plevne. Ottomans prepare to break out Your Great Grandfather Is learning to build steam trains For the Great Western I travel towards your star At nearly three hundred Thousand kilometres Per second As I pass the distance Of Rhol Cancri And its planets One destined to be the Smallest yet discovered Twenty Seven years from now You are born The first North Sea Gas Has just arrived Protests are growing Over Vietnam From here The General Strike is underway U.S Troops are in Nicaragua Queen Elizabeth is a newborn I am now as far As your nearest star Your second marriage Is nearly ten months away New software For the Apache community Is announced President Bush Congratulates Congress For passing Homeland Security Appropriations The day before He invokes Roosevelt At a UN Reception The oceans are officially More acidic From here The Scottish Parliament is elected NATO bombs the Chinese Embassy In Guinea-Bissau a Palace is on fire The Twin Towers stand Bin Laden plans I pass Pluto’s orbit It is Darwin Day The irony does not escape you You are walking on the Downs Trying to make sense of it all From here you are waking up And remembering What happened I passed Neptune’s orbit Nearly an hour ago For you The Sun is setting From here You are starting your walk Jupiter I am half an hour away You watch television From here You watch television Mars Six minutes You feel restless From here You watch television My destination is now a disk In front of the Sun You are lighting a cigarette In the garden You look up at the stars Big Dipper first Of course From there The Pole Star You walk around the corner To see winter’s warrior Orion You are calmer now And glance eastward To Taurus I pass the Moon You glance at Aldebaran My journey ends On your retina Noting the slight redness That I and my fellow travellers Have communicated Through your optic nerve You smile Reminded there is beauty In this world And go back inside Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verisoph Posted February 16, 2009 Report Share Posted February 16, 2009 Very well done, cursuswalker! It's certainly thought provoking.Perhaps you could somehow work in to this the idea that from the photon's perspective it strikes your eye at the exact same moment that it leaves Aldebaran. That might requre a shift away from its first-person narrative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cursuswalker Posted February 16, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2009 You make a good point, but poetic license and the fact it is actually about time itself is my only defence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verisoph Posted February 16, 2009 Report Share Posted February 16, 2009 I'm sorry, it was not my intention to make you feel the need to defend your poem. It's quite good as is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cursuswalker Posted February 17, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 It's cool I quite like the idea of the photon experiencing all of it in one moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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