.jpg) | |
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.
