Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Spheres and parallels

On 23 January 2013 I posted a latitude-longitude poem "Zero-Zero" by Elizabeth Bodien and today I offer another of her poems of celestial geometry, this one inspired by a painting by San Francisco artist Blazin.  Here, first, is Blazin's painting, followed by Bodien's poem -- both entitled "Midnight / Noon Along the Solar / Lunar Meridian." 


Midnight / Noon Along the Solar / Lunar Meridian 


Midnight / Noon Along the Solar/ Lunar Meridian     by Elizabeth Bodien

                       from a painting by Blazin

The grid made, one line takes off,
splitting shadow and light,
the sun/moon meridian.

A single mutation, everything changes.
Stars gather sudden,
plot their reverses in black greasy clouds.

They shape-shift to hummingbirds, crimson rivers
and dreams. The celestial globe reels,
on its gyroscope waist, innards trembling.

Overmind marvels how the parallels
and grand circles the Earth creatures constructed
send forth spangled rays.

Lazy spheres are confounded, too familiar
their orbits. The order now skewed,
time itself will be fractured.


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