Recalling Einstein: Headbanger by Jack Cooper

Detail of "Vanitas," Adriaan Coorte, 1688,
Zeeuws Museum, Middelburg, Netherlands,
photographed 30 June 2009, 14:19 by zullie 
[Source: Wiki Loves Art / NL project]

HEADBANGER by John Jack Jackie (Edward) Cooper

Closer to a precipice, I shrink: indifferent to salvation, pray for calm, control -- pity, less purpose; plead award of concentration,

allowed reserve -- allowed, of course, being false: deniable reward, testing ice where firm decision by itself must grant the go-ahead.

God does not play dice, Einstein says, with this universe, nor any other­ -- neither ought I: its least affiliate of empty space.

But act, instead, as I shall attend: in fullness of self-contempt, like a cistern; brim pride, shame, excessive rage, yet exceed  -- not enough;

hand raised, in arrest of hopeful despair, mutter "too much," fallen far and far: leave now only to crawl no farther on land, capable of pitching headlong.

John Jack Jackie (Edward) Cooper, poet, fiction writer and translator, is production editor and co-publisher at Poets Wear Prada. His micro-chap Ten, preview of his forthcoming Aphorithms, was released in 2012.  His blog, These are Aphorithms, can be found at http://aphorithms.blogspot.com. 

"The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret 

of the 'old one.' I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice."

                                                                                    -- Albert Einstein

One hundred and thirty-four years ago, today, Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879.