Photo from Hubble Telescope.‘The Absolute and Relative’ by Peter Venable The Society February 9, 2020 Beauty, Culture, Poetry 3 Comments The Absolute and Relative Argue with repartee: Ultimate One or Ground or Truth, Or relativity? Through the Hubble’s stupendous view, Ancient galaxies flee— The Relative accelerates Into infinity. But science cannot form the lens For Relative to see. The Absolute stands fixed in place And holds the master key. Peter Venable has been writing poetry for 50 years. He has been published in Windhover, Third Wednesday, Time of Singing, The Merton Seasonal, American Vendantist, The Anglican Theological Review, and others. He is a member of the Winston Salem Writers. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. CODEC Stories:Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) 3 Responses C.B. Anderson February 10, 2020 Unlike the images captured by the Hubble telescope, these lines do not stand up to examination. Reply Archie M. Goldworthy February 10, 2020 The first two stanzas read somewhat awkwardly, though the third is practically gold. The subject matter is also well-chosen, using the Hubble’s work as a reference point from which to explore the relative merits and demerits of relativism and positivism. Despite occasional technical imprecision, well done. Reply Monty February 12, 2020 ‘Twas refreshing to see such an uncommon subject used for a poem, Pete; and equally refreshing to encounter a piece which genuinely provokes some sort of thought. I agree with Archie that the first two stanzas could be better written; they make for slightly awkward music. Additionally (although it’s only a personal thing), I’ve never liked the idea of rhyming ’ty’ with ‘ee’. I realise that it’s accepted in poetry, but . . ! And I double-agree with Archie that the last stanza is “practically gold”. It’s pure poetry, Pete, in every poetic sense; including the content, which gives one the impression that the whole stanza might (with the omission of the word ‘but’) be extracted to stand as an aphorism in it’s own right. No mean feat! Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Captcha loading...In order to pass the CAPTCHA please enable JavaScript. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
C.B. Anderson February 10, 2020 Unlike the images captured by the Hubble telescope, these lines do not stand up to examination. Reply
Archie M. Goldworthy February 10, 2020 The first two stanzas read somewhat awkwardly, though the third is practically gold. The subject matter is also well-chosen, using the Hubble’s work as a reference point from which to explore the relative merits and demerits of relativism and positivism. Despite occasional technical imprecision, well done. Reply
Monty February 12, 2020 ‘Twas refreshing to see such an uncommon subject used for a poem, Pete; and equally refreshing to encounter a piece which genuinely provokes some sort of thought. I agree with Archie that the first two stanzas could be better written; they make for slightly awkward music. Additionally (although it’s only a personal thing), I’ve never liked the idea of rhyming ’ty’ with ‘ee’. I realise that it’s accepted in poetry, but . . ! And I double-agree with Archie that the last stanza is “practically gold”. It’s pure poetry, Pete, in every poetic sense; including the content, which gives one the impression that the whole stanza might (with the omission of the word ‘but’) be extracted to stand as an aphorism in it’s own right. No mean feat! Reply
