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Wednesday 15 May 2013

How do we see a beauty - or an Ugliness


Light -- sun-light -- instinctively owned
source and nourisher of energies
that flesh is heir to.
Mind knowing it as twin.
Object -- not medium -- of sight.

See how mountains scatter light in certain ways --
the way that water smacks and breaks off rock,
perhaps -- and other things in different ways,
how trees have similar trade secrets of their own.
How all we know of anything is how it fractures light --
until, that is, we add the confirmation of a touch:
the mountain can be climbed,
the tree will take our weight.

But more: the way the light will change
a surface that it falls upon
(or the surface will change it),
so do the patterns from the world around
fall on to patterns sparking in the brain,
and like conflicting wave forms,
cause interference, each with each,
sometimes to enhance the status quo
and feed the pleasure centres of the mind
as beauty; sometimes to corrupt,
and tell us that we see an ugliness.

9 comments:

Outlawyer said...

It's wonderful to focus on light as object rather thanedi of sight. (The mountain part gives cataracts a whole new meaning!). That is a joke but you make light very physical here. Lovely. This is Karin of Manicddaily - http://Manicddaily.wordpress.com. I am on iPhone which wants me to use old blogger ID. K.

Brian Miller said...

when we live in a world based only on what we see, how the light refracts, we are destined to judgement...but touch, that changes everything...smiles.

Kass said...

Nice. Especially like "...fractures the light."

Janine Bollée said...

Oh dear, I am trying to understand this but am simply too tired and all I can think of is:red is stop
green is go
amber is go a little faster

Mary said...

I am not sure about the ugliness. I wouldn't really judge anything of creation ugly....

haricot said...

light is added to the object from outside, but energy comes out from inside. I wonder which is more effective to define the beauty and ugliness.

Ygraine said...

So that's how it works...I hadn't thought of it that way...as simply a matter of serotonin levels in the brain being either stimulated or repulsed by the refraction of light.

Aren't the workings of the human brain truly amazing?!:)

Dave King said...

Outlawyer
I love the remark about cataracts! Thanks for the steer to your old blogger address.

Brian
Yes, both are needed. One without the other produces weird results at times.

Kass
Much thanks. Good to hear from you.

aprille
Like it! (Especially the amber.)

Mary
Of Creation, yes, I would have to agree, but then there are man's creations...

haricot
Good point. You've set me thinking...

Ygraine
Yeah, put like that, I've over simplified, haven't I? Yes they are truly amazing!


Jinksy said...

patterns sparking in the brain

And just look what your sparking patterns form into as words... LOL