Thought's Bodies

Thought's Bodies
by Gideon Burton

Due diligence: do diligence toward
electrons and to ink; to paper's fiber,
to hyperlinks, to images, and wider.
Be generous to weigh each way's rewards.
As words engraved teach what each word affords,
or fluid speech can teach agility--
so, find in writing writing's true ability:
how pen or keyboard mock the might of swords.
The pace of thought is metered to the means:
whatever matter mediates the flow
predominates in shaping one's intent.
Impossible to one way (so it seams)
comes clear in a translation that's more slow,
transforms as it is spoken, written, sent.

Photo: flickr - boadiceafairy

Refraction

Refraction
by Gideon Burton

Through which glass darkly viewing: book or page
or Latin, lens or focus, resolution, screen?
Along what vein projecting: inky age
or pixels perfect, language evergreen?
At certain angles textures cough and claw,
or smooth a prism's lancing of the black
confusions time accumulates in raw
and mute abundance. Certain masks retract
the numbness; certain fabrics sew the sense.
A pattern is an optic, matrix, stone
Rosetta, glyph unglyphed, thick verbs untensed;
dark algorithms make the darkness moan.
     Like sheep from goats, the signal parts the noise;
     simplicity's complexity that's poised. 

Photo: flickr - philobiblon 

Too Much Information

Too Much Information
by Gideon Burton

So many books, so many years immersed
within their labyrinths of inky thought.
So much remains unread. Perhaps I'm cursed
to know I haven't read all that I ought.
So many movies, years of hours passed
in front of dancing screens both large and small.
So many yet to see. They come so fast--
of just the best, I'd never catch them all.
So many sites and blogs, the data rush
of updates, feeds, of music, pictures, more,
surrounding me like hosts of locusts, slush
and slag and shiny things sprayed out like spores.
     Deluged, I cannot skim or surf or think.
     I want to thirst again before I drink.
  

Photo: flickr - Philippe Put