Philosophers Aloft
Miss Dickinson offers her pencil—
Which I try—
Not intruding on the “sect of one,”
Who does intrude on me.
I
The molecules in my cup
In count attempt the stars—
Just one—or two—or three—
Indignant writings speak
To consciences attuned—
As is water
Giving life.
II
Plato vastly spoken
When his Student takes the stage—
Furthering—correcting—challenging—
Sun new in Afternoon.
Both baptized—Babble of the Bumble Bee—
Water sheered to steam—Afterglows apprehended
Impressed as flying buttresses—to serve—
What superior had dropped.
III
Do you brag to say “we only”?
Or is it humble pie?
To say the truth—is humble—
If you is.
If you ain’t—although you think—
Remember lofty Hands
Not tied—that serve
The humble Paradise.
IV
I loathe to poke my cyst
With but a single pin
When then mine thought doth cast
To a Medieval cloth I swing
Upon my back—weighted—barbed
With half a hundred stubby jagged nails—
My love and hate a-wobble—
“Depart from me, O Lord!”
V
And then It comes and then It stabs
And then It sends me off—
Remembrance of entanglement—
The good I knew the bad I did
And then I hear a Moan—dogging—
Dwelling in the steel bars—
From one whose bad was Murder—
Against my bad—a glancing Eye
Reproving me for choosing—
A runner left underfoot—
Friends moving furniture.
VI
Humans made in the image of God
Is where disaster struck—
When learned this fact we cry in pain
How could God have failed?
But no, Adam the chiasmal man
Did bad to render good—and God
Was good to give a bad command.
Thus bad is good and good is bad
To set the matter straight.
Otherwise—we face the fact
That human choice was honored.
Thus bad was bad and good was dropped—
Although some chafe at Will the Mystery.
VII
The circle of the Earth—
Said the prophet—
When others thought it flat—
Raising thought of who could know
But One above the human mat.
Yet we meet the fellow in repeat—
Of Horizon as we spin—
A prophecy it must! People fey!
With a yearning to believe?—
Or a yearning to obey?
VIII
Cosmic proof!
The grandeur and the charm of Thee!
The fundamental constants
In perfect harmony—
Impossible if sprung from slapdash happening—
Must be from God—or else from Big Bang at High Tea.
IX
A push makes it move—
Matter to matter—
Good enough for simple folk.
X
Wittgenstein’s ladder—not fit
For a man—carries Wittgenstein
To a roof—a homely roof—
Difficult to discover—
Where the ladder’s flaw is discerned.
Structures of stone and structures of straw
Exhibit settlement—lavish
In simplicity—a Dweller thrives—
Testing structures with Fire—or not.
A sprout takes flight
Seeking out the Sun—
Its reaching root hits Rock
Then searches out a Crack
Or branches round about—
Life too precious to abandon.
Force defined—moves Mass.
Mass defined—fronts Force.
Charge defined—notes Field.
Field defined—tweaks Charge.
Physics is a science of root
And foothold—petitio principii.
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