A good poem for me has to slip under my skin and inhabit my being. Here is a poltergeist poem that has set up residence in my conscious mind and keeps rustling through and disturbing my thoughts when least expected. Its range from statistics to thermodynamics is broad. But such matters are inconsequential compared with the theme of this poem, which stretches beyond the universe and outside of time.
This extract from the book Generosity by Richard Powers is an embedded poem of polestar brilliance. (As quoted in The Australian 19/12/09 Book Review Geordie Williamson)
Art is a way of saying what it means to be alive,
and the most salient feature of existence
are the unthinkable odds against it.
For every way there is of being here,
there are an infinity of ways of not being here.
Historical accident snuffs out whole universes
with every clock tick.
Statistics declare us ridiculous.
Thermodynamics prohibits us.
Life, by any reasonable measure, is impossible,
and my life – this, here now –
infinitely more so.
Art is a way of saying,
in the face of all that impossibility,
just how worth celebrating it is
to be able to say anything at all.
Richard Powers
Richard Powers is the author of ten novels, including Galatea 2.2 and The Echo Maker , Generosity. His writing often combines fiction with the themes of historical events or, as with his latest book, scientific developments. He has received numerous honors and awards including a MacArthur Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, and the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Historical Fiction. He lives in Illinois. (Photo credit:Lorenzo Ciniglio. Books can be purchased through Richard Powers website.)
Generosity (Atlantic 2009)
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