Sometimes I have time to browse my shelves and rediscover old favorites. Several of this blog's much-read poems have come from Scottish author Brian McCabe (Find blog search results at this link) -- and below I offer the first part of McCabe's two-part poem ("Two Quadrilaterals") entitled "The Restless Square."
Two Quadrilaterals by Brian McCabe
Part 1. The Restless Square
There was a square who yearned
to become something else.
It stretched its legs to mimic
an elegant rectangle but
lost its balance, leaned over
in a perilous parallelogram.
before it sprang back into shape
four equal sides and four
quite predictable right angles.
With a supreme effort then
it held its breath, drew in its corners,
swelled into a trembling circle,
stretched into an elegant ellipse
but the effort was so exhausting
that it fell asleep. When it awoke:
four equal sides and four
quite predictable right angles.
Then the square met another square
who was having a meeting for squares
all wishing to become something else
and together they found a way.
There was a cube who yearned
to become something else . . .
McCabe's poem, "Two Quadrilaterals" is found in his collection Zero (Polygon, 2009; Birlinn, Ltd). The second part has the title, "The Unemployed Parallelogram." My review of McCabe's Zero is available online here.
Minds
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Add and
Multiply
The richness of thought.
Its final sum--enlightenment.