silence and motion
the world out there is cold, hard
and has its own unwavering rules —
when our mushy minds confront
the solidity of matter, unyielding,
unforgiving, and unlikely to be changed,
there’s an inevitable absurdity to it all —
a disappointment at the confrontation
between nature and thought,
a conflict between physics and perception —
my eyes don’t see your place, so much as
describe the waves to my neurons
in the language of light and line and hue,
of expectation and prediction —
my hands don’t hold your face,
so much as receive your warmth
and texture in little blind receptors,
to record your volume and shape —
and my lips don’t taste your lips,
they convene at a point in time and space
where our words have stopped
meaning anything
and have let silence and motion
decide both our fates…
Garbage Notes:
In this piece I’m juxtaposing the subjective experience of what we’re doing in the real world with the underlying biological mechanisms at work. It’s a poetic mix of the abstract and the concrete. The visible and the hidden.
As the poem unfolds each action becomes more intimate. From just thinking about someone, to then seeing them in their environment, to then holding and touching their face, and to ultimately ending with a kiss.
The silence and motion contrast is intended to highlight the fact that even when we are at rest, and there might not be much going on around us, there is still a bevy of biological activity occurring inside us.
Even the act of staying completely still and quiet requires an orchestrated effort at the level of the neurons. Inhibitory neurotransmitters working in the synapse, enable us to engage in a willful expression of poise, preventing us from floundering about like some kind of short-circuited robot.
The closing of the piece emphasizes the fact that even in not doing, we are doing a lot. We are engaging in a certain degree of self monitoring and self control. It takes a great amount of strength and focus to block out all the noise going on around us in favor of the intensely personal internal stimulation that our minds are capable of in feeling, thought, and imagination.
Franco Amati 2023
Took my time to read and re-read, the ending is powerful, sort of hard to forget (hope that doesn't sound excessive!) ... "... let silence and motion decide our fates"
You're sounding great on this one! Love the neurobiology bits. It's a great point.....I tend to talk so much, haha, so just staying quiet and not talking is like hella difficult, especially when other people are around.