From A coat of ashes
Month: October 2021
The Sage and the Physicist
The Physicist does not tell me not to study.
The Sage does not furnish his text with citations.
The Sage does not postulate gravity and light.
The Physicist is silent on yin, yang and qi.
The Physicist does not claim that Name is the Mother.
The Sage does not construct a non-commutative algebra.
The Sage does not calculate quarks and anti-quarks that suddenly spawn from the void.
The Physicist does not intone verses that have lost their oral context.
The Physicist does not say Dao engenders One which engenders Two which engenders Three.
The Sage does not mention that Higgs thing that splits the trinity.
The Sage does not theorise strong and weak and bright electromagnetic.
The Physicist does not invoke a mysterious Three that engenders the ten thousand things.
The Physicist does not invoke a mysterious Three that engenders the ten thousand things.
The Sage does not theorise strong and weak and bright electromagnetic.
The Sage does not mention that Higgs thing that splits the trinity.
The Physicist does not say Dao engenders One which engenders Two which engenders Three.
The Physicist does not intone verses that have lost their oral context.
The Sage does not calculate quarks and anti-quarks that suddenly spawn from the void.
The Sage does not construct a non-commutative algebra.
The Physicist does not claim that Name is the Mother.
The Physicist is silent on yin, yang and qi.
The Sage does not postulate gravity and light.
The Sage does not furnish his text with citations.
The Physicist does not tell me not to study.
From A coat of ashes
The italicised text is from the 道德经 (Dào Dé Jīng), traditionally attributed to 老子 (Lǎozi), translated by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo, Hackett Publishing 1993, chapter 42.
The fundamental forces dream
There are five fundamental forces,
said my son.
Gravitational, Electromagnetic, the Strong, the Weak,
and Hunger.
Hunger
is the fundamental force
from which all the others are derived,
I said.
And there are accordingly five
fundamental particles.
The one associated with Hunger is called
From A coat of ashes.
First published in The Authorised Theft Papers, the Australasian Association of Writing Programs’ (AAWP’s) 2016 conference proceedings.
First published in The Authorised Theft Papers, the Australasian Association of Writing Programs’ (AAWP’s) 2016 conference proceedings.
The things I’ve learned
How to appear simultaneously in Melbourne, London and Perth.
How to check the news, briefly, once a day.
How to buy two weeks’ food at once.
How to use less toilet paper.
How to wash my hands.
How to sprout beans.
How to bake bread.
How to be alone.
How to relax.
These are the things I’ve learned.
First published in Written in the Time of COVID19, Shire of Nillumbik, October 2020