"The Learn'd Astronomer" by Troy's Work Table.
Sidewalk chalk wash, sidewalk chalk, chalk pastels, and charcoal pencil on 12" x 12" concrete board.
---
"Even then, I knew the stars to be empty cans." and "the art of love is less mysterious than you suppose: / a plastic toy in a rubble of caramel corn." —from "The Learn'd Astronomer" by Michael Robbins, as found in Alien vs. Predator
---
The poems in Alien vs. Predator are a mixture of pop culture references, song lyric snippets, and traditional poetic forms.
---
"The Learn'd Astronomer" shrinks distances between the far and the near, the ethereal stars and the tangible manifestations of our lives. Instead of playing the cliche of saying we are star dust, Robbins collapses the stars into our lives as "junk in a Safeway cart."
---
This is a "romantic" poem, a "love" poem, that has been stripped of what we think of as romance, what we think of as love. I think this is a love poem for the "end times," for the end of the universe.
---
Perhaps, though, being alive, existing, is romance and love enough. May the "stars" forever shine!
No comments:
Post a Comment