This agreement in dimensions, proportion, arrangement, balance.
Desired by many as harmonious and beautiful.
Mathematical, geometric, in nature, arts, architecture, music.
Natural, but not easily achieved in life,
because cosmic forces, like time, are asymmetrical.
that flew beside me in my car,
at 30 mph down a suburban street:
Were you racing? Why choose my car?
Did you glance at my amazed face?
Can we talk? Coffee, worms and berries?
this twenty-first century morning makes me
a Roman meditating a thousand years ago
On the Nature of Things, a universe
without gods, made from very small particles,
eternal motion colliding, swerving in new directions.
This poem was inspired by reading The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
To discern the laws of small things,
walk the room’s border, read book edges,
examine breasts carefully with your eyes closed,
look at where pine cone meets branch,
listen to bird songs in the rain.
One brown leaf on the morning step
reminds me first of autumn, but then
my mind turns green as the sun
crossing my face for a warm moment,
before the wind brings back winter.
