Friday, December 31, 2010

Profane and Sacred

The year is done, but it is not the new dawn of a sacred time.
It’s once again the ending of an ordinary year profane.
We’ll zero out the GDP and pray meanwhile the rate, the prime
Shall crawl so low the Dow will soar, and if the jobs they see a gain
That’s still all right if they remain in the private sector in the main.

Meanwhile there’s this weirdling feel in this basement where keys click
And bright neons light summer plants, that despite the great precision
Of calendars, where Greenwich Mean’s the universal measuring stick,
Something sacred still adheres, by orbital or high’r provision,
Not just to the ends of years but also to each cell’s division.

4 comments:

  1. The passing of this "ordinary year profane" gives us another chance to improve on the last one. Let us resolve to give our best effort and let our better angels do this work.

    A lovely poem!

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  2. Does "weirdling" mean "becoming more and more weird"?
    I get a chill of Erasmus Darwin from the second stanza, and find it entirely agreeable. It is very much De Rerum Naturae and Lucretius, and the words appear effortless.

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  3. Montag: Haven't read much of Erasmus, but I did quote a bit from him early in the life of this blog on a bit I did about “Natural Selection” (here).

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  4. So I followed your link and there was The Temple of Nature in all its poetic splendor.

    Sorry about the Latin; should be de rerum natura.

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