Black Glass
Adam Kibbe
Reflections in†night’s window block my view.
They were there by day, just invisible.
What is outside is still there, just not seen.
Such balance
shapes what is available to us.
And what I see through this window (when I can see)
is not all there is,
but it shapes my perception
as the frame of a camera describes a worldview.
“Careers are limiting” said Michael,
and of course he’s right —
in that we will do what we will do
and no more.
But the things we do
expose us to what we come to know.
Were our actions other, we’d be too.
Is there always more to more?
Are there not paths that
in leading inwards,
expand?
To know something well from one perspective
can be limiting.
But to know that point of view at all
is a gift.
To know knowledge, however thorough, deep and vast, to be finite,
is to come to a field
rich with life.
All the blossoms of that field are beyond one’s picking.
And to find one’s limitations,
measured against†such multitude,
may be daunting.
May be liberating.
But we are pickers,
and we†walk this field.
One is as fair as another.
I am inside this window.
What is outside is outside.
Tomorrow will come,
and tonight’s separation will have no relevance,
save for these reflections on a reflection.
I don’t understand the deafening silence. I love it. Black Glass is an oh so gentle wander through an oh so gentle spirit.
Comment by michael — April 28, 2005 @ 6:11 pm
Adam, poetry not being my strong suit, I have to say after multiple readings (a reader issue not a writer issue) I enjoyed its richness. Particularly the last three lines.
Comment by chris — April 28, 2005 @ 8:35 pm
A thoughtful treatment of an archetypal topic: choosing.
Left me wondering if there was a conversation with someone that triggered this poetic response…?
A whymsical counterpoint is this definition of specialist :
Someone that learns more and more about less and less, until he knows everything about nothing.
Comment by smiling — April 28, 2005 @ 10:12 pm
That was perhaps one of the best poems i have ever read, one that gives no answers but sparks universal questions that keep me awake at night and provide akmost a comfert in knowing that i am not alone in these thoughts that bring so much unsertanty in the reality around us
Comment by thankfull friend — April 28, 2005 @ 10:29 pm
If there had been glass windows in Plato’s time, perhaps he would have used the allegory of reflections instead of the allegory of shadows to describe his worldview. Adam, great poem. The descendents of Plato salute you.
Comment by rakkitylooking@ — April 29, 2005 @ 10:10 am