Irrational

Not just a mathematical uncertainty
An exclamation of human emotion that
Makes one feel insensible, irrational.
I wonder how much it matters – this
Need to logically think, to unravel
Quandaries with a stick of a defined length
And set out the shapes in perfect geometry.
Where does it come from?
We are governed by laws of nature
That can’t be broken, only mended.
So given how we are slaves
To the very idea of order, wherefore
We believe in chaos? Oh wait!
Isn’t it the other way ’round?
There is a tornado somewhere that
Seems lost and confused – the sense
In its existence being questioned as
It rapidly turns on its eye to see that
It is here because of a butterfly’s
Innocent flights of fancy.
Ah! The rational irrational.
I wish I knew you better.

Explanation:

I had to write by hand for 10 minutes without break, to let my irrational mind free and help me address new topics in poems.

I found the outcome interesting. I don’t know if I like it but it is what it is. (The poem is presented in its unedited form.) I was structured by the word and wrote about irrationality when I could have written about anything! I don’t even fully understand what I wrote: some math, chaos theory, natural world and almost no human emotion (which is the very essence of what I would consider irrational). I took the most rational subjects to speak about irrationality. Am I such an academic? Please don’t hate me!
“I wish I knew better” now feels other-worldly, like my own conscience was asking me to connect better with my emotions. Mildly freaked but highly intrigued!writing-with-pen
Why don’t you try the same? Make sure you handwrite it. I got very different results when I typed – very uninspiring and wholly depressing.

23 thoughts on “Irrational”

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  1. Maybe you could help me understand or think about the weak force. As I understand it, is that which or where creative destruction and recreation takes place. As above so below. That is where Im thinking art comes from also.

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    1. If we think of art in its elemental state then I suppose it is the weak force, the barely recognisable interactions that lead to creation and devastation (as interpreted from one’s point of view). I think too much about what is felt or experienced and forget that when I create it comes from a place where these forces are changed and there is only a weak understanding of what I am creating, just that something is being born out the death of something else.

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      2. Exactly. It was suggested by my poetry teacher to help us gain confidence in our ‘voice’, to not be deliberate. I have seen people suggest this for fiction but not for poetry. Actually he never curtailed us to poetry. Just asked us to write nonstop. But I thought poem just before I started and it magically appeared.

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    1. Thank you Andy. I take this as a great compliment.
      I didn’t expect my free-write to be coherent but it is and surprisingly the more I read it the more layers I see. I am revisiting it just like you are. I now have personally experienced: “No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader”. Non-agenda writing is fantastic!

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  4. It’s funny, when I first read the poem I was confused. After reading your explanation, I went back and re-read it, and it seemed like the sort of whimsical poem a physicist would write, which gives it a lot of character. I like it a lot.

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  6. “We are governed by laws of nature
    That can’t be broken, only mended” i want this as a large and elaborate sticker on my desk.

    I am glad I can relate to the dismay of writing it by hand. I have the absolute worst penmanship this side of a drunk chicken. Misery kinda likes company 🙂

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    1. Ha! To imagine that my words are stuck somewhere other than my head is truly a delightful thought 😀
      Maybe you misunderstood, I am not unhappy to write by hand. In fact I preferred it in this exercise to typing. But I completely agree with you that seeing my already suffering penmanship slowly suffocate was disturbing. I am still rebelling against my primary school teachers it seems 🙂

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  7. When studying art our daughter Becky was required to draw with her left hand for the same reason. She produced results full of feeling. When you write by hand you feel the pen and the paper which must give you a start

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    1. I find it incredible that I hadn’t thought of it before. But then, the best ideas always seem obvious after we have tried them. You are absolutely right about the ‘feel’ and also seeing the words develop on paper is enjoyable (even though after 5 minutes my penmanship suffered greatly).

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Go for it! I know you want to.

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