{To play with metaphysics}

From a 2020, 24 hour Poetry Marathon that I participated in. I wrote one poem each hour for 24 hours straight. The prompt for my poem, 'To play with metaphysics' had steps, and you had to do them in order. These were: 1) Grab a book off a shelf at random;

2) Read the first line of the book and the last line of the book; 3) Pick one of them;

4) Use every single word in this line in a poem at any point in the poem.

The book I picked was: 'On Poetic Imagination and Reverie' by Gaston Bachelard.

To play with being and non-being, starting from a trifle, from a flame - perhaps merely an imagined flame - is for a philosopher a beautiful instance of illustrated metaphysics."

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To play with metaphysics,

is that beautiful trifle sitting there a work of art?

manifested from an altered state?

the starting point of a flame?

Or, merely a concrete object,

existing to appease the gastric senses?

Then, perhaps an imagined blob

illustrated by the unconscious in a dream interpretation?

In this reverie,

where does being begin and non- being end?

In any instance, the philosopher

can masterfully conjure up from imagination

with gusto, desire and flame of intellect -

a glimpse of the unknown.

For isn't the quantum field exactly that?

An endless, spontaneous source of possibility?

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Ajanta Judd, Photo and Words: Poem 2020; Digitalised Photo 2022

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