I don’t think man made the universe
[Alternate version of “Ubi Thesaurus Ibi Cor”]
Every single thing that can be known is small if kept isolated –
The diatom, humming-bird, coya fly, the eagle
Corner him and learn him, become an expert.
Just jet-propel yourself for a moment.
But from some distant place beyond the furthest spiral nebula
Star, earth, planets and galaxy assume perspective
Spread out and spaced like the electrons round an unsplit nucleus
Flat and continuous, synthesised, complete, intelligible
To the mind that can master space and respect it.
Come back through the silent pathways of the stars
Treading the black incredible emptiness
Till ruby, emerald, topaz flash of Algenib
Splits into separate splinters of flaming light
Each it own self, own colour, own star
Binary and solitary and clustered tracing
A path of speed and colour through inert
Blackness and outermost silence.
Come down the orbit of the planets toward the sun
Passing the hushed inhuman wanderers,
Break through the screen of asteroids and spin
Across the darkness towards the lifeless sea.
Come where the Baltic amber lies unsought
Where topaz, amethyst and diamond lie
Unmined, unwanted in a world where microscopic man
Can simulate the jewels with glass and paste and superheated stone
Cheat the desert of 2000 years of chemical patina in an instant
With a crucible, a formula, a flame
And scatter its colour in millions over the world
Winking the crooked eye from Woolworth winds.
Glorious plastics, glorious technicolour, close your eyes and hold your breath
Till coloured stars flash and dance vanish over the eyeballs
Don’t listen, but hear and never think
Or you might buy a pink enamelled bath
Or a car with 93 new places for cigarette lighters
Or a pen that writes for 83 years under water
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Stoke up the air-conditioning unit
Fill the plastic glasses
With something of champagne type
And let us be most gloriously and synthetically merry.
Don’t bother about the furniture –
Nothing is breakable
Even if it is a little ugly
(But it will dissolve in acetic acid, and evaporates in city air without warning
In 23 months and 5 days, so that the
Sale potential will not die) but meanwhile it’s very durable.
This will up to date and noisy
And everybody will be very sick
Because the stomach hasn’t altered
Fundamentally in 2500 years.
O it’s a fine world, with a ball bearing
Mousetrap in every family.
Fancy-free, the key in the pocket.
We don’t live in houses any more –
We only reside in homes.
By the grace of science
And miraculous folly of RF Waves
23.2.47
From “Log Diary IX 1946”
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