Angst

A cul-de-sac at night in a suburb of London.
Descartes' ether is the glow
from lamppost lights as it pools in the street, 
washes over dead cars, 
and breaks along the sidewalk.
It is immune from the wind that has put
an electric spasm in the trees and
a howl on the edges of every darkened house,
but is as alive in my bones as the perennial cold.
It turns an alley cat into a lion and
fallen leaves into ghosts, and 

it calls to me like the rapturous 

waters that the Titanic could not resist.

Author's Note

René Descartes considered the medieval views on motion occult and therefore superseded; he believed instead that all forces are transmitted by direct contact. With regard to the actions between bodies not touching each other, such as two magnets, or the influence of the Moon's position on the tides, he postulated that they must be in direct contact through intermediate contiguous matter. The force is transmitted through this matter—the ether—by two agencies, pressure and impact. Space, in Descartes' view, is a plenum occupied by an ether, which, imperceptible to the senses, is capable of transmitting forces on material bodies immersed in it. Descartes assumed that the ether particles are in constant motion, but, as there is no empty space for them to move to, he inferred that they move to places vacated by other ether particles. The particles participate then in the spinning motions of closed chains of particles (vortices).

Reviews

[ivizarx]

imagery and descriptions are well beyond amazing with your perfectly choice words which rings with no boredom or dry taste. definitely a poet with talent yo. also love the informational insight, very captive and appealing.

[Dearantlers]

This is really good!! I like it a lot, and you are a really good poet.