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| @skyloverpoetry |
The wheel is no measure
of civilised thinking:
not much of a leap from rolling rocks
downhill bemused by momentum
when fear persists, turning
quickly to blood
but we learn to wake
and sleep,
count the days,
scratch our names on stone
while fine philosophy burns out
against a murky backdrop
of human history.
This is a rewrite of an older piece, which I cut down considerably.
I have never been one to fully believe in fate and fortune and have at occassions fought destiny and molded into my favour. Why resign when we can rebel?💜
ReplyDeleteI love the tone and pacing of this poem 😊 which feels like spinning a wheel but making better judgement. A fantastic write, Kerry! 💜
I think it is very human of us to wish to rebel against the inevitable.. Thanks, Sanaa. I cut and rearranged lines of an earlier, more unwieldy poem, so I am glad the pacing of this version works for the reader.
DeleteI can't tell you how much I love this. Yes, invention (and sometimes prophesy) destroys us.
ReplyDelete"but we learn to wake
and sleep,
count the days"
Isn't this absurd? Taking natural cycles and making them forced and organized? So stupid to remove our innate rhythms and replace them with those man-made. We feel what we should do, and we should have the freedom to just do it.
"while fine philosophy burns out" ... Every voice counts, especially when they're few in number. Yours stands out, Kerry. Sing, shout, do whatever feels natural. You are a beautiful, powerful poet and artist.
Thank you so much for your kind and affirmative words! That means a lot to me. Your commentary is very thought-provoking in itself, so I thank you for that too.. Soon I'll be quoting back your words to you. Haha!
DeleteYeah, well I misspelled "prophecy," so don't quote back that part, lest I cringe. ;)
DeleteOh, this wheel that keeps on turning and we keep on rolling with it because that is what we suppose is the way of it.
ReplyDeleteI am both bemused and affected by this bit: "scratch our names on stone/while fine philosophy burns out". And with the entire mapping of human history in this narrative, that is perhaps all we can attest for.
With such brevity, the "philosophy" and ideas expressed here have deep connotations. Your play with dystopic worlds is plain wonderful, Kerry! :-)
I once saw a photo in a book about the vikings, evidence that someone had scratched his name into stone in Constantinople... that always stuck with me. People feel a need to leave a mark of their presence, like it may alter our mortality.
DeleteInteresting play on the Tarot Wheel of Fortune, which medievals saw as the inevitable turning of events, from high side to low and back again. (Shakespeare's tragic heroes were crucified on it.) Here a stolen fabricated derricked enginned fortune results in the exhaustion of Nature: And isn't it the curious fate of market fundamentalism to end up under the cruellest regulation of all--the collapse of civilization and return to brutal rule by the elements. Those who screw with the wheel end up under it ...
ReplyDeleteThe wheel is definitely on the downward turn for this latter day civilization.
DeleteThis is stellar... and I think that the only time we can really invent is to create new ways to crush and destroy.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bjorn.. The imagery is abstract so I am glad the point came through.
DeleteYes, we don't know all that is on that wheel of fortune except the certainty of endings. I would like to slap the hand that turns it at times.
ReplyDeleteEndings and beginnings.. until the destruction is complete.
Deletebut we learn to wake
ReplyDeleteand sleep,
count the days
Life that twirls around each individual is mysterious with impending risks but somehow each is able to overcome it in their own way! Very true Kerry!
Hank
I have never been one to believe in fate or fortune. But I do believe our destiny is up to us new ways to rebuild and recreate
ReplyDeleteSadly humanity is an an aberration, a being preferring to destroy and kill, even each other, just to grin with pride to show their worth. They would rather destroy the Earth to achieve supposed wealth as forests burn reducing oxygen to breathe and oceans are polluted so food becomes scarce whilst plans are made to live on a neighbouring planet that is alresdy dead!
ReplyDeleteIt is a most tragic state of affairs.. and none can claim ignorance as those in the past may have done.
Deletebut we learn to wake
ReplyDeleteand sleep,
count the days,
scratch our names on stone... I don't know if I believe in the wheel of fortune, by whatever name called, but this has such a sense of foreboding- the murky history and the burning of all good thought.
It is a medieval belief.. I believe man makes his own destiny through good or bad choices.. but whatever the case, the way ahead is murky.
DeleteI liked the thought, but I had not thought much about before, "but we learn to wake and sleep, count the days." Mrs. Jim remembers her mother teaching to go to sleep. Big thing is to close ones eyes. I'd not heard of that, I thought of that being a natural process when the sleepy feeling comes.
ReplyDelete..
Tarot poems always surprise me because, although there is a set of guiding interpretations for the cards, each poem is so different. I love the way you separate the wheel from civilisation, Kerry, and those ominous concluding lines.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kim. I think my dystopian tarot series sets out to break the set rules of interpretation.. create a more modern or futuristic interpretation.
DeleteI love this poem!!
ReplyDeleteAll the people point and say, look how far we've come. But I fear we are on a journey to oblivion, so there seems little to celebrate. We are becoming more clever everyday, in our pursuit to remove our humanity, as we create more and more widgets that lessen our need to strive, our need think, our need to self-sustain, and with this goes our need care. It's all become an inverted reality show in which all we need to do is watch - unplug our humanity, and watch the unreality at arm's length. No wonder society is collapsing, there are no backbones left to support it?
ReplyDeleteWonderful commentary! Thank you for taking the time to read and respond.
DeleteWe are so good at the art of ruthless progress that the more we learn the more dangers (and backwards) we seem to get. It's a shame, isn't it? Imagine the wonders we could grow, if we use all that knowing power to warm instead of burn.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I would love to see this as short film.
We are very much like rocks rolling downhill! But still we strive to roll up! Thanks, Kerry. k.
ReplyDeleteI disremember if it's Hindu or Jain cosmology that posits the great wheel is in the lower edge of its cycle, and has and will be for some thousands of years. So all those gods and demons writ human keep pulling, pulling us down.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a wee bit of poetry as we spin, though, our palaver with eternity ~