The Astronomer - circa 1668, Jan Vermeer
Inspiration must come down from God,
from heavens above to heavens below.
So much to unlearn, all knowledge is flawed.
He never forgets to whom all is owed.
From heavens above to heavens below,
he observes and records peering through glass,
never forgetting to whom all is owed.
The night is funneled through small tubes of brass.
He observes and records, peering through glass,
making corrections to what was once thought.
The night is funneled through small tubes of brass
piercing the darkness of what he was taught.
Making corrections to what was once thought,
without fear of law he scribbles all night.
Piercing the darkness of what he was taught,
into dark corners he will shed some light.
Without fear of law he scribbles all night,
inspiration has come down from God.
Into all corners he will shed this light,
discovering moreby which to be awed.
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Comments: 72
OK Susan, I won't touch it. But here it is as it supposed to be.
I'm going to edit it AFTER you read it ~ to fix it! Can I do that? (You know this drives me nuts. I won't be able to sleep tonight knowing it is posted this way.)
Inspiration must come down from God,
from heavens above to heavens below.
So much to unlearn, all knowledge is flawed.
He never forgets to whom all is owed.
From heavens above to heavens below,
he observes and records peering through glass,
never forgetting to whom all is owed.
The night is funneled through small tubes of brass.
He observes and records, peering through glass,
making corrections to what was once thought.
The night is funneled through small tubes of brass
piercing the darkness of what he was taught.
Making corrections to what was once thought,
without fear of law he scribbles all night.
Piercing the darkness of what he was taught,
into dark corners he will shed some light.
Without fear of law he scribbles all night,
inspiration has come down from God.
Into all corners he will shed this light,
discovering more by which to be awed.
Now I remember why I quit writing in Pages (a mac application). Had to use my old laptop tonight.
You can edit it. The rules state that you "can't," but that's only if you aren't competing. If you are aiming for a poem-of-the-day or a poem-of-the-week, I'd recommend following the rules.
just sayin'...
aniko, will it not show "(updated ... bla, bla ...)" at the top of the post if you do ths? I'll try it. If it doesn't, that's a good way around. I always have a little more trouble because I post in Safari ... which doesn't help things.
Yes, Safari doesn't like Gather. If it can open the HTML editor, it should work, though.
fyi to Ann and anyone else who might wonder. I made the rule of no content edits (edits for adding a forgotten tag or when the groups section disappears is allowable) because it doesn't seem fair to me that someone post a poem for the contest and someone comments to say, "Your word choice is confusing..." or "The terminal words are supposed to rhyme..." etc. and then the poet makes corrections and reposts.
When I submit to any other contest, I've never had a second chance. I think this should be the same.
(come to think of it, they still are.)
And a big agreement to Jan's observation of the juxtaposition of theology and science.
I am very pleased to have read it and will read it again.
Pantoums for today now appearing at Mindful Poetry!
Thanks for sharing and submitting to
The Surreal Circus.
I love science too.
Those days are gone, baby!
The history of the Northern Renaissance is quite fascinating.
Beautiful poem. Susan still stubbornly resists the idea that we should not be able to "tweak" our work. I'm sure she wouldn't go out in public with her skirt tucked into her panty hose just because it was "too late".
Beautifully done.
Thank you submitting to Gathers Luminous Writers and Artists. Now Featured.
I am aware, as I have told Susan herself, that we are playing on her field and must abide by her rules. I don't mind really. It is only an irritation to me because I am generally such a sloppy writer. In reality, her rule forces me to think (when I remember to) more thoroughly about how my poetry will be perceived. So while I bitch from time to time, it is myself that I get frustrated with.
She knows (or I hope she knows) how much appreciation I have for her efforts in providing this very fun and thought provoking yearly contest.
Sometimes, even if I'm working in Word as well as Pages, the line breaks get messed up. I thought that was the Gather interface that was doing it. I have had to redo my poems several times to get them right, and that can be annoying to the people trying to find the poem after I have taken it down for a second to fix it. That would be all 20 of my readers! ; )
Featured in The Golden Age in the Triple Name Club.
And thank you Mustafa for your efforts to make Ekphrastic poetry so visible on Gather.
Make your own banner at MyBannerMaker.com!
-summers-monkeys-
That is the most storied phrase to imagine.
Top notch, all, Atticus.