The letters that still work pulse out of time
And flash a garbled message. Near the sign,
The drone stats truth and beauty, those sublime
And equal states, and labors to divine
Aesthetics from the dregs of neon tea.
The glassy tubes shine green, a frantic shade
Refracted like a punk-rock olive tree,
Authentic and uncurbed, a hand-grenade
Of color burning hot and short. They speak
In riddles too: they hiss of Keats, and thrive
On Stephenson. His android voice grows weak,
But weep for Adonais; he's alive
Inside that robot shell, and slips through chrome
Distracted by an urban metronome.
3 comments:
Wait a minute, is this at all related to Scott Walker and 30 Century Man? It is reminding me again of the figure representing poetry, and yet he seems to be a creature of the modern gospel's creating. A dead, cacophonous plastic and metal character that now hints of or rather invokes Keats and Stephenson, with truth and beauty as mainstays....
"Frantic refracted shade....hot and short...hand grenade...hiss[ing]...riddles.. weeping for Adonais..dregs of neon tea..."
This is a very interesting tale that seems so laden with a powerful message beautifully conveyed almost subtly. Marvelous. Excellent imagery laced with assonance and consonance.
I don't know that it is that good to repeat the "i" ending for the entire first quatrain, but it reads beautifully nonetheless.
Wow, what a lovely crown unfolding.
Keats is referenced not just explicitly but implicitly. The truth/beauty analysis is a nod to Keats' Ode to a Grecian Urn, and Adonais afterwards to Shelley's elegy to Keats. Stephenson is Neal Stephenson. And the entire work is inspired by 30 Century Man on some level. I couldn't get it out of my head.
In this one, I wasn't sure whether to engage the "punk-rock olive tree" line, which spins out of control in the next two, but it fit and painted the color of the neon in a way that I like. It also maintained a faint biblical allusion with the reference to the Mediterranean crop. The last three lines were fun to write. Here, QED hears the message, and strives to soar above his herd.
Sweet, the hint was subtle but true. Ever since I suggested it, I've been convinced of it, as this seems to amply prove.
You invoke the Biblical with the olive tree, sans comprehending the depth of that metaphor, which actually appears to me to play out excellently in this. As usual with these sonnets, it sometimes seems as if the idea expressing itself as inspiration in each finds words for conveying more than we are really aware of.
Good luck to him in extricating himself, which as Kilroy/Killroy he eventually does, though I don't believe that is truthfully possible.
Post a Comment