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