2.9.10

a poem on Thursday : Pi


Pi
The admirable number pi: 
three point one four one. 
All the following digits are also just a start, 
five nine two because it never ends. 
It can't be grasped, six five three five , at a glance, 
eight nine, by calculation, 
seven nine, through imagination, 
or even three two three eight in jest, or by comparison 
four six to anything 
two six four three in the world. 
The longest snake on earth ends at thirty-odd feet.
Same goes for fairy tale snakes, though they make it a little longer.
The caravan of digits that is pi
does not stop at the edge of the page,
but runs off the table and into the air,
over the wall, a leaf, a bird's nest, the clouds, straight into the sky,
through all the bloatedness and bottomlessness.
Oh how short, all but mouse-like is the comet's tail!
How frail is a ray of starlight, bending in any old space!
Meanwhile two three fifteen three hundred nineteen
my phone number your shirt size
the year nineteen hundred and seventy-three sixth floor
number of inhabitants sixty-five cents
hip measurement two fingers a charade and a code,
in which we find how blithe the trostle sings!
and please remain calm,
and heaven and earth shall pass away,
but not pi, that won't happen,
it still has an okay five,
and quite a fine eight,
and all but final seven,
prodding and prodding a plodding eternity
to last.
- Wislawa Szymborska

This is possibly the furthest "off" from Madeline Bea's prompt (for the record it was 'illuminate') that I've been.  But this is where I ended up.  I just wasn't happy with any of the poems that I found about light and illumination.  I was also interested in finding a 'happy' poem written by a women.  This is also an incredibly hard thing to accomplish which led me to thinking about why women seemed to be tortured souls when they write poetry (think Emily Dickinson as a prime example) and men can be all romantic and whistful.  If anyone knows of a bright and happy female poet, send her my way.


11 comments:

Zoe said...

My mum! Unfortunately she isn't published though, so not much help...
I love the poem, it's wonderful and made me smile the whole way through!

Diana Mieczan said...

This is a great poem and I adore that image too:)
Kisses and have a great day

Velvet Moon said...

lovely poem and blog!

I'm doing a GIVEAWAY right now for my online store grand opening, check it out if you'd like : ) http://ginamarievintage.blogspot.com/

Gina Marie Vintage

chelsea rebecca said...

this is such a great poem!
i totally agree with you.. so many tortured female poets!!!

Punctuation Mark said...

thanks for your lovely message and hope to see you in my blog again... i love this image... Florence is a beautiful city!

Colleen said...

Did you write this poem? It's wonderful! I love it, but then I kind of have an affinity for pi. You'll have to repost this on pi day. :)

Maegan Beishline said...

I'll have to show this to my husband...in high school he was obsessed with pi! I've been reading Mary Oliver and she doesn't seem tortured...quite at peace actually!

Simon said...

Your photo and poem posts are always a treasure. I like the whimsy of this....and I can get to illuminate.

Jamie said...

I love the way your mind works! What a fun direction to take this week's prompt

Foundinthe-ALI said...

I saw your comment on the hair clips I made over at Mandys Yellow Corner. I will be posting my clips and hairbands on my Etsy soon. I wanted to invite you to come check them out. I have short hair too so a lot of my stuff is "short hair friendly" :P


http://www.etsy.com/shop/madeintheali
http://foundintheali.blogspot.com/

Papier, Ciseaux, Cailloux... said...

She's so great this picture... Il love this long, long list of numbers flying in the sky...
I hope it's mean something with my small english !