Poem: "Occhiolism"
This poem was written outside the regular prompt calls. It also fills "Labradorite - Awareness of Layers of Reality" square in my 12-1-22 card for the Valentines Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles. It belongs to the series A Poesy of Obscure Sorrows.
"Occhiolism"
the awareness of how fundamentally limited your senses are --
noticing how little of your field of vision is ever in focus,
how few colors you're able to see, how few sounds you're
able to hear, and how intrusively your brain fills in the blanks
with its own cartoonish extrapolations -- which makes you
wish you could experience the whole of reality instead
of only ever catching a tiny glimpse of it, to just once
step back from the keyhole and finally open the door
The mortal perspective is limited,
be it human or any other species,
boundaries drawn by the finite senses
experienced in the shape of its flesh.
The eyes and the ears and
the other organs are circumscribed
and they can only do so much.
The world is infinitely more.
Reality is like labradorite,
simultaneously yellow and blue,
bright and dark, flashing with
mysteries like Athena's eyes.
You can never see all of it at once,
because it changes depending on
the angle of view, yet all of it is
always there to be seen.
It's like peeking through
a keyhole, getting only
a glimpse of what's there.
But don't worry -- we're
learning how to make keys.
Spyglass and microscope,
radio and seismograph, they
all open a different door for us
to understand a new part of
the world that surrounds us.
We can open the rainbow of
the spectrograph and discover
the components of distant suns.
Only the flesh is limited.
The mind is infinite, and
there are keys upon keys
still waiting to be cut
to open doors we
haven't even found.
* * *
Notes:
A Poesy of Obscure Sorrows is a series based on freshly minted words presented in the book The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. Poesy is an old term for a body of poems.
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig, p. 6. Simon & Schuster, 2021.
"Occhiolism"
the awareness of how fundamentally limited your senses are --
noticing how little of your field of vision is ever in focus,
how few colors you're able to see, how few sounds you're
able to hear, and how intrusively your brain fills in the blanks
with its own cartoonish extrapolations -- which makes you
wish you could experience the whole of reality instead
of only ever catching a tiny glimpse of it, to just once
step back from the keyhole and finally open the door
The mortal perspective is limited,
be it human or any other species,
boundaries drawn by the finite senses
experienced in the shape of its flesh.
The eyes and the ears and
the other organs are circumscribed
and they can only do so much.
The world is infinitely more.
Reality is like labradorite,
simultaneously yellow and blue,
bright and dark, flashing with
mysteries like Athena's eyes.
You can never see all of it at once,
because it changes depending on
the angle of view, yet all of it is
always there to be seen.
It's like peeking through
a keyhole, getting only
a glimpse of what's there.
But don't worry -- we're
learning how to make keys.
Spyglass and microscope,
radio and seismograph, they
all open a different door for us
to understand a new part of
the world that surrounds us.
We can open the rainbow of
the spectrograph and discover
the components of distant suns.
Only the flesh is limited.
The mind is infinite, and
there are keys upon keys
still waiting to be cut
to open doors we
haven't even found.
* * *
Notes:
A Poesy of Obscure Sorrows is a series based on freshly minted words presented in the book The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. Poesy is an old term for a body of poems.
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig, p. 6. Simon & Schuster, 2021.