Shifting Knowledge
“Know thyself” ~ the temple at Delphi
The earth is slowing down its turning on
Its axis; so it seems, at least. The tides
Have been impeding spinning since the dawn
Of oceans and the sphere. Our planet rides
Through vastest vacuum of blankest lack
Of matter, just with specks like comets, suns,
Some moons, some stars, and asteroids in black
Of nothingness and glides like that since sons
Of God shouted, “Joy!” Gravity alone
Impedes our world and even that is done
By earth’s own mass, its seas. Our sphere is thrown
To slowing by its waters. They can stun.
..The truth turns out to be that sloshing weight
….Might be the cause of self-defining fate.
I like the parallel you’ve drawn, but to me the “slowing” is more comforting.
IN A SPIN
by Stephen Bartlet-Jones
The Earth. My mind. We both spin. Constantly.
Not with purpose or direction. Just round
And ever round in restless flight. You see,
Flight has two forms: first, flying from the ground,
That thrilled, unfettered flurry weightless-free.
Second (like the Earth and me, both unbound
By gravitation) floating loose, we flee
The emptiness of space in which we’re drowned.
As Earth conceals its wastes in rushing sea,
Just so with heaped up knowledge I confound
My void. But still we spin, a clockwork key
That, till it snaps, is wound and wound and wound.
Only the drag of sloshing seas and Learning,
That teetering stack of facts, can still our turning.
I only just now saw this comment. SORRY. I really like your sonnet.