Piano keys –
waiting for my fingers,
they dream of a Bach fugue.
Sheet music –
notes build cathedrals of sound
that wait in patient silence.
My daughter’s horse –
strong willed spirited mare
who taught her so much.
Print in books –
the miracle of adventure
between the pages.
Equations on blackboards –
elegant integrals
to describe truth.
Old photographs –
time machines that carry us
to eternal youth.
My poetry notebook –
pointy pencil on smooth unlined paper,
singing my soul’s song.
2/16/2017
For contest: The colors black and white
Sponsored by Laura Loo
Occupations are not
all useful, like when Sisyphus rolls
and nobody cares. Even Camus
can’t justify my love
of quantum or calculus, when it’s burn-lonely
rolling out the integrals: I integrate
myself into a human
-ist Existentialist here’s the point -ist
theory of why I am why I am
and when I differentiate my parents
chide me. I gather the pieces again.
did the Greek philosopher Socrates
ever have thoughts of his own mediocrity,
did Buddha in meditation contemplate
belly-button lint in his belly button sedate?
maybe some Confucian spiritual medium
pondered dust in minute trivial tedium.
did Newton while conjuring Newtonian physics
diverge integrals to converge sum to basics?
who might think the relativity Einstein thunk
of rusted tin-cans, rocks and other space junk
the universal ideas of Hubble and Neils Bohr
might spring from ordinariness, not much more
did Jesus when building blocks of religion
view a mud stain on his robe with derision?
did Mohammed when thinking deep thoughts
find his mind became distracted, distraught?
did Edison surmise that he wasn't too bright
at candled table where he invented the light?
did Voltaire care what Michelangelo did know?
do mediocre minds reap what deep minds sow?
do great minds when thinking of great things
see the law-of-averages that mediocrity brings?
did Spinosa know that mundane goes a long way
to get most'a us through an ordinary day
my supposition is, yes, even great minds digress
intrinsically, mediocrity, is part of all humanity
© Goode Guy 2011-09-22