[A wonderful, rollicking poem today from my good friend Jonah Winter. For more about Mr Winter, see the blurb following the poem!]
Ode to Indeterminacy
There was a thing.
It existed.
Persons also existed
in relation to the thing.
Additionally,
other persons existed
in relation to the persons
connected in some way,
as yet undisclosed,
to the first thing.
Had there been a second thing,
then one would have been correct
in referring to the thing
as having been first.
Fortunately, or unfortunately,
this was not the case,
or at least,
it was not clear
whether or not it was
or was not the case.
Furthermore,
one could not ascertain
the whereabouts
of a potentially large group of things
tumbling through a space
about which
little could be said.
To say something
would have been
presumptuous.
And yet,
to not say anything
could have, feasibly,
been interpreted, in theory,
as unduly cautious, perhaps…
Jonah Winter
© 2010-2011
Jonah Winter’s poetry has been widely published. In addition to his poems appearing in a number of magazines & in chapbooks, he has also published Maine & Amnesia; the latter book won the 2003 Field Poetry Prize. Jonah has also published 20 children’s books on subjects ranging from Roberto Clemente to Hildegard Von Bingen. You can check out his Writers Talk interview on Robert Frost’s Banjo here.