The poetic and open space

[Ralph Copleman]

Hi,

As an opener of space and a poet, I smile to see how the original idea of
producing poems about OS has grown.  Now on this list we have poems about
anything.  I like this a lot.

Although in my own experience poem-writing and opening space are not
necessarily connected, they do bear a resemblance I want to say a word
about.

I had a poetry teacher who reminded me that the poem I'm writing at any
given time is usually more intelligent than I am, and that to get it right,
I have to follow it wherever it wants to go.  Opened space seems to have the
same social/spiritual relationship to the individual.  In other words, a
system in open space is wiser than any individual in the system ­ at least
about the intentions of that system.

I only wish that the poems I work on would fully reveal themselves to me as
quickly as OS reveals a system.

Here's a poem I've been following around the past several months.


The Purpose of Butterflies

It¹s rumored
west winds begin with
a single thought from you, showy Lepido,
fluttering still pale air,
stirring the atmosphere¹s slightest doubts
into creases, notions, rising torments
blowing fulvous skies over the Pacific
and reaching my sandy shores in soaking torrents.

Meadows¹ breathy pastels,
serrated stripings, lustrous primary slashes,
rainbow glow, sky fire¹s full flush.
Needlework on a timeless, frameless canvas,

To look that good,
for exclusive rights to the most fruitful coalescence,
to unfold heaven¹s radiant robes
you will never glimpse,
you sifted genes through brightening strainers,
twinging at the level of chromosomes
for just the right hues,
coding whom to attract, what to mimic
to make a decent living,
You could have gone for simple stealth,
or murder-loving camouflage,
You chose
to be seen.


--
Ralph Copleman
609-895-1629

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