symmetry

I search, I look
for sublime touch, 
Of meaning in
the dirt and dust.
A shred, a crack, 
a false perception, 
scrying clues of misdirection: 
more to life, 
greater meaning, 
imagination quelling reason.
Yet, as always, in conclusion, 
symmetry
it slays delusion.

Reviews

[B.J]

The greater meaning in your world leave you pondering

[thewholesoul]

very nice indeed. cleanly written with lovely depth. may i ask what kind of delusion does symmetry slay? it was a very enjoyable read, left me thinking too. best wishes

[Christopher Withers]

Hi thewholesoul, your review is appreciated!

Symmetry was a metaphor for mathematical certainty, base objective reality, and the rationality that stems therefrom.
When I wrote this I was giving up long held religious/spiritual beliefs after many many years of searching. I'm a rational kind of guy, so faith was never enough for me, I needed something tangible to support the spiritual claims. Finally (for me) the weight of evidence was too great against what I wanted to believe, and those structures failed and crashed (objectivity slaying my faith held beliefs.)

[thewholesoul]

thanks for the explanation. ex catholic myself. though i still believe in spirituality. there is more to reality than this physical empirical realm of the senses. when we strip ourselves our beliefs, experiences, we are left with an awareness, a consciousness, that is itself not something physical or tangible that we can measure or calculate nevertheless it exists, it is. that's my Chinese fortune cookie for the day! the very best of wishes.

[MomzillaNC]

Your poem has great flow and feeling.

I do recommend you edit the copy for grammar and capitalization; those errors are so basic that it detracts from an otherwise masterful bit of prose.

[Christopher Withers]

Hi MomzillaNC,

thanks for the feedback, it is appreciated :).

I'm not sure why, but when I created this poem it was a conscious decision to use lower case throughout. Perhaps to give an understated overtone to the text?

I tend not to do revisions, and if the points your raise in your review hold for many readers, perhaps I will start.

[MomzillaNC]

The capitalization don't hinder the meaning and the flow. When I hit a grammatical error, it breaks the flow and I get bogged down deciphering the intended meaning with correct grammar usage. It may be that I used to be a graphic designer in print publications -- or that I'm just over educated, but I'm rather a stickler. Colloquial grammar is often incorrect, but can be used to great effect, as long as the narrative copy is correct. I used to work on a magazine: it went through three copy editors before I ever saw it for design; then, went back to a copy and layout editor before coming back to me for final layout approval; then, it was sent off to the printer.

[Christopher Withers]

You make a strong point! With your experience, I'll definitely take your points on board :).

There are a few authors that I'd love to love, but their use of grammar is jarring to me, so I can never comfortably read their books. I'll make the changes ;)

Thank you for taking the time to give such feedback!

[MomzillaNC]

You're very welcome. Two of my favorite authors, Peter Mayle and Georgette Heyer are so beautifully written that you feel the need to read aloud -- because their words just deserve to be heard. I don't think there's ever a word or punctuation character out of place.

[Sam]

Well done Christopher Withers. A delight. Though I ought to suggest capitalisation in the usual required places.

[Christopher Withers]

Hi Sam, thanks for your review!
I wrote this one a few years ago (I'm currently transferring my poems over to this site) and at that time, chose to have it all in lower case - for the life of me, I can't remember why though!

I'll most likely edit it to fix this.