Friday, December 5, 2008

The Magic Ladder

Vayetzei

and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven ...
Bereshit 28:12

Sulam (סולם, ladder), from the shoresh סלל can mean "to pause, to retain for thought and meditation" like in my poem where "hard pauses startle into vision ... between depths of opposite observation ..."

Originally posted on my musical website of poetry in motion under the title, Shamir - DiVisions of the Night:

first rhythms ever plunge, eternal hosts driven into life
drawing through a field of topographic brilliance
where judgment lovingly flows, churning out whole stones
resting against asymmetries trying, like diamonds in chaos
proto-perception foams, over annihilating operations
and from it, dark bursts of lucidity finely entwine
coarse grains of almost something, almost yet sufficient
the silent rush of yet nothing slides, wildly as percolating pivots
diligently thread through it, casting clarity
upon myriads, hard pauses startle into vision
projecting arrays without mass, strings of confluency
impressing discovery, a shadowy tail-end lingers
between depths of opposite observation
iterating embraces of many meanings like quasi-quanta
gathering functions about the head and, and
spinning spectra, pushing forward, yearning toward home
not knowing, yet only knowing
as some featureless reach edging edges stretches out
the magnetic sweet dance
where divisions collapse like crystal caves
softly sprinkling the belly of the night divine
with bytes of thoughtbare kisses
extending the glorious field of apprehension