"Water" by David Pring-Mill, Frequent Contributor

Water

David Pring-Mill

The questioning mind surely sees itself

in physics and our institutions.

This world whispers secrets into its wind:

Origin stories,

and elaborate myths of legacy.

Outside, puddles gather as if to show

the persistence of each drop,

and recesses to be filled.

I study this delicate movement and mass.

The mighty cliffs break to become

sediment of the sea. Mother Nature,

are your facades constructed paper-thin?

Over the ocean, our horizon bends:

A supple curvature, placed before the vacuous coldness.

The darkness between those stars so cleanly mirrors

the darkness dividing our own illuminations.

With the salty air reminding me of

Those wonderful things that emerge

from brine and crashing swells.

Poet’s Notes:  This poem directly investigates the dynamics of the natural world. It observes a universe that is defined by its deeply co-occurring unity and division. Every contradiction of matter and energy is somehow folded within a spectacular congruence. There is some common character that exists within vastly different forms and textures. Defiance and agreement are within the same movements, the accruing of volume and mass, and the many degradations of this beloved Earth.

The first two lines of “Water” suggest that there is a consciousness in the universe. The opening lines also imply that we establish and enforce institutional structures in a manner that imitates the structuring of our own minds. This is a subtle nod to Professor Robert Sternberg’s theory of mental self-government. More info here: http://www.robertjsternberg.com/thinking-styles/.

The mirroring of darkness in outer space and the separation felt between people is again a way of drawing an unexpected parallel. “Water” aspires to trace a few of the astonishing similarities that span our universe’s bigness and diversity; it makes the humble and scientifically-substantiated claim that the stuff of the self is indeed from the cosmos and contends that even the most abstract characteristics can be perceived in some externality of our own doing and within our own environment.