N Is Its Child
If darkness produces all, from where do we obtain nothing?
As a line becomes the circle, becomes a mouth, becomes identity.
In mathematics, n signifies indefinite; in English, negation.
The no, the non, the withdrawal, the taking away.
A heart with trachea represented zero in Egyptian hieroglyphs.
My mouth forms the void through the displaced word.
Conforming to the absent, the missing tongue serves soundlessness.
Aural reduction, the infinite unclenched: n plus n.
Shiva, creator and destroyer, defines nothingness. As do you.
One and one is two, but zero and zero is stasis.
Pythagoreans believed that all is number, and numbers possess shape.
The letter N evolved from a cobra to its present form.
One may double anything but zero.
Unspoken thought, disorder. The attenuated voice swallowing itself.
* * *
“N Is Its Child” was first published in Issue 4 of Reservoir. I am grateful to editor Caitlin Neely for accepting this piece.
O at the Edges 
N, not S, was inspired by the cobra, eh? I’d have made a lousy Egyptian. 😉 Learned something new today! Really enjoyed this.
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I think S was developed from a bow hieroglyph.
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“the infinite unclenched: n plus n” – love this! something inside unclenched just reading this phrase…
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Thanks, Jazz. I drafted this at a writing conference workshop, and about a third of the workshop participants asked me if I had a science background. A couple others asked if my degree was in philosophy. “Nope,” I said. “I just read.”
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Hmmmm … read and retain and associate … spin some intriguing correlations into ahas.
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Poetry is everywhere!
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This is beautiful. Brings a lot of nostalgia. I once wrote a poem titled N too. Now reading this, I feel I could have done better. Thanks for this beauty.
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Thanks very much. I think we often feel that we can do better, but things have a way of happening to prevent that.
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True.
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Yes, I agree with issiakson! Robert, your poem is both excellent and inspiring with some unusual twists and symbolism.
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Thank you very much.
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You are very welcome, Robert.
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1 + 0 is 10, and your poem is a Ten out of 10
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I like your math, Ivor!
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Yep, I did pass!! 😉
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A question worth the asking
A lifetime’s journey
for the answer seeking.
The dreaming.
A universe made up
of the positive
and the negative, put back together
adding up to a big nothing …
according to Stephen Hawking.
~ David R.
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Is nothing something? Another question…
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You should write aphorisms Bob.
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Maybe I could become the Porchia of Texas. Or not. 🙂
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Maybe the Lavater of Texas. There’s a set-up for a joke in there, but i’m not going to push it.
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Ha! Well, I’m certainly not either.
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Did you ever read Blake’s marginalia to Lavater? Quite funny sometimes, he’ll just right “Gold!”
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I haven’t, but obviously should.
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Congratulations to Robert on having the poem accepted by editor Caitlin Neely and subsequently published in Issue 4 of Reservoir!
Indeed, I am seconding Daniel! We can learn even more from Robert through not just his poems but also his (forthcoming) aphorisms, the best of which I shall mention via hyperlinks in the “Related Articles” section of my post at https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/soundeagle-in-art-aphorism-and-paramusic/
I would also like to offer my five-cent worth as follows. Regarding your line “One may double anything but zero.”, as far as I can ascertain, there is one other “thing” that cannot be doubled: ∞ (infinity).
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Both would be difficult to separate into halves, too. 🙂
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Indeed, Robert!
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Robert, are you trying to move from split infinitive to split infinity? 😉
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And back again!
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How do you manage to move that fast? Do you have your private wormhole?
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Riding that stellar wave…
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Then please kindly join me for a cosmic tour at https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/cosmos-in-perspective-scaling-the-universe-with-interactive-infographics-film-animation-and-slideshow/
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Thanks very much. I’ll hop on later today.
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Thank you in anticipation, Robert. I look forward to interacting with you and reading your feedback there. 🙂
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OH MY GOD I WISH I COULD WRITE LIKE THIS
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Thank you, FK. I am honored.
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Reblogged this on Kaleidoscope of Faces and commented:
this is one of the most satisfying, to read pieces I have read in a while. Some things just feel good to read aloud. Way to Go O!
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So pleased you read it aloud!
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OH MY GOD YES ROBERT YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT. some are just like that. Truly amazing poetry is like that. Where the word sounds in and of themselves without even their meanings attached, are just a pleasure to say.
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I think poetry should be read aloud as much as possible. If a poem doesn’t please aurally, perhaps it needs work.
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You are one of my favorite poets now!
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Now I’m blushing. Thank you!
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Thought dynamite.
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Thank you, Craig.
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