As an exercise, I was instructed to write a poem based on lines from Pascal’s Pensées. So, as per usual, I went overboard and wrote six. And since I couldn’t use them for anything in particular, they sit here for your perusal and commentary.
1
how foolish all thought is,
reason, broken,
masquerading as truth,
new, yet tragic.
reason never submits to
creation, within,
an expectation of nothing
astonishes, yet carries.
nature is lost yet
broken dreams
fragment eternal silence
into infinite spaces
that frighten hearts,
stillness broken,
rippled water submitting
freely to thought. foolish.
2
truth, nature becomes itself,
shattered
yet expecting nothing,
a tragic final act of
imagination,
impossible.
joy, truth becomes as naught,
children
expecting yet silence,
a tragic simple act of
originality,
unwanted.
3
submit not to
broken
reason, the true nature
capable of the new.
be frightened to
create
truth, untrue imagination
dangerous as speech.
simply be not
complex
yourself, foolishly created,
nature simplifies as self.
4
originality, its death
the birth of reason,
speaks danger
against truth.
objectivity, its life
the death of creation,
thinks foolishly
against subject,
self, joyfully expecting
nothing
but the life of
broken originality.
5
speak danger,
severing the head of reason,
foolishly imagining yet
breaking the few
capable of thought.
expect salvation,
seeking enlightenment in truth,
acting tragic truths yet
imagining the heart
incapable of speech.
6
you are not created as
broken
truths, yet you anticipate
nothing
in an eternal silence.
you are frightened as
quiet
spaces surround indivisibly
unbroken
by quiet noises.
you are child yet
grown
image, in the image of
fear
of foolish thought.