Linda Bierds
 

I ran into this poem maybe a few months back and I keep returning to it, so I thought I'd share. (Apologies if most have read this already. I think she gave a reading at my U when I was in graduate school, but I admit that I'm not all that familiar with her work.)

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poe...s/detail/58829

Coming very late to this. I certainly was not familiar with either the poem or the poet. A highly intriguing picture. James, I can imagine you might keep returning to it but I'd be interested to hear what particularly grabs your attention.

Well, it has little in common with the poetry that I typically admire. It isn't musical (though it shouldn't be) and I hate ellipsis, esp closing a poem (though it's necessary). One or two images didn't seem as fresh as they could be. It's prosy.

But it's ambitious-- and quietly ambitious. The close I think is as precise in opening up possibilities as "the child Galileo" wanted to be in trying to narrow them. Not lunatic creationism, but perhaps a recognition of spirituality that I find compelling. It's passionate, but still keeps its distance. I found it more complex the more I read it. Thanks for showing up, Gregory.

(The horses bit reminded me of a certain saying that went something like "When you hear hoof clops in Ohio, you think it's a horse and not a zebra.")

That's a thoughtful analysis, James. Thanks for that. I've never read anything about Galileo's childhood, but this is convincing in its detail. And the image of him sawing through the hailstone with an E-string is very striking, and certainly sends out all sorts of suggestions. I'll stick with the adjective I first used, intriguing...

I didn't know about Galileo's personal life... unless wiki's wrong, it does add to the poem.

As I'm writing from Venice, and it's 25th August, I think it worth mentioning that it was on this day in 1609 that Galileo demonstrated his telescope to the Doge.