Different persons experience time differently -- as illustrated by the few lines included below (part II of "Time" from my new collection, Red Has No Reason). This musing is followed by the beautifully precise "Four Quartz Crystal Clocks" by Marianne Moore (1887-1972).
From Time by JoAnne Growney
Time's not
as Newton said--
the same for all--
for I
am punctual,
and you are late.
You waste
the savings
I spend on you.
Four Quartz Crystal Clocks by Marianne Moore
There are four vibrators, the world's exactest clocks;
and these quartz time-pices that tell
time intervals to other clocks,
these worksless clocks work well;
independently the same, kept in
the 41° Bell
Laboratory time
vault. Checked by a comparator with Arlington,
they punctualize the "radio,
cinéma," and "presse,"--a group the
Giradoux truth-bureau
of hoped-for accuracy has termed
"instruments of truth." We know--
as Jean Giradoux says,
certain Arabs have not heard--that Napoleon
is dead; that a quartz prism when
the temperature changes, feels
the change and that the then
electrified alternate edges
oppositely charged, threaten
careful timing; so that
this water-clear crystal as the Greeks used to say,
this "clear ice" must be kept at the
same coolness. Repetition, with
the scientist, should be
synonymous with accuracy.
The lemur-student can see
that an aye-aye is not
an angwan-tíbo, potto, or loris. The sea-
side burden should not embarrass
the bell-boy with the buoy-ball
endeavoring to pass
hotel patronesses; nor could a
practiced ear confuse the glass
eyes for taxidemists
with eye-glasses from the optometrist. And as
MEridian-7-one-two
one-two gives, each fifteenth second
in the same voice, the new
data--"The time will be" so and so--
you realized that "when you
hear the signal," you'll be
hearing Jupiter or jour pater, the day god--
the salvaged son of Father Time--
telling the cannibal Chronos
(eater of his proxime
newborn progeny) that punctuality
is not a crime.
The stanzas in "Four Quartz Crystal Clocks" not only have the same shape but the also illustrate the poetic form called "syllabic" verse--with a precise arrangement of syllable counts per line. For example, the first line of each stanza has 12 syllables; each second line has 8 syllables, and so on. Moore's poem may be found in her Complete Poems -- on pages 280-81 of this edition also may be found notes to accompany the poem.
Work by Marianne Moore also is featured in the April 9 blog posting concerning baseball. Precision in measurement of time was previousty considered in the August 19 posting of "Brief Reflection on Accuracy" by Miroslav Holub.
Hi Joanne! Your poem reminds me of a similar sentiment expressed by Marvin Bell in his poem "To Dorothy."
ReplyDeleteA child said it, and it seemed true:
"Things that are lost are all equal."
But it isn't true. If I lost you,
The air wouldn't move, nor the tree grow.
Someone would pull the weed, my flower.
The quiet wouldn't be yours. If I lost you,
I'd have to ask the grass to let me sleep.