November 17, 2011

Orpheus, Do You Hear?

Orpheus, by Auguste Rodin

Orpheus, do you hear
the new sound
droning and roaring?
Many now exult in it.

Though the Machine
insists on our praise,
who can listen
with all this noise?

See, it rolls over everything,
weakening us
and taking our place.

Since its strength is of our making,
why can't it serve
and not possess us?

Sonnets to Orpheus I, 18

3 comments:

  1. and there are so very many machines - not entirely of the physical world either - that clank and grunt containing all who are willing to be contained and processed. steven

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  2. A bold commentary on our contemporary society, where "the Machine" creates so much noise and demands so much praise that we can hardly listen to our lives. Yes, we have made it to serve us, but it now possesses us.

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  3. So prescient he was! How have we allowed it to possess us so completely?

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"Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night."

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Go ahead, bloom recklessly!