LOOKING CLOSER

I was eating my packed lunch at small park today. There was this piece of abstract art as it's centre-piece, a concrete "sculpture" that didn't seem to resemble anything I've seen. There was a plaque identifying the artist, and the whole park was laid out with this as the nucleus.

A few feet away was a maple tree ... how Canadian is that, eh? As I compared the two of them, it occurred to me that most things that are man-made (however lovely) tend to get uglier as we look closer. The tree however is quite the reverse. Although beautiful as whole, it continues to reveal beauty no matter how deep or microscopic we can look - even at the cellular level. So that gave rise to this short poem:

LOOKING CLOSER

The artist's admiration of his latest creation,
Thought through …
Designed deep …
Planned perfect …
Rightly proud of his achievement, the ribbon's cut,
And we enter another pavilion of human making.

Watching the concrete as it moves close to my eye,
Consistent inconsistency …
Abnormal anomalies …
Cracked creases …
Rightly examined up closely, the truth leaps out,
And we enter a visible ugliness of human making.

That leaf on that branch of that beautiful tree,
Symetrically surreal …
Flawlessly functional …
Microscopically magnificent …
From near or from far it makes no difference,
And we enter wondrous beauty not of our making.

Contrasting creations of man and creations divine,
Randomly rough …
Serenity seen …
Opposing opposites …
We look close at the man-made, it's beauty degrades,
But that leaf on that tree, so majestic I'm entranced.

It's pretty much nonsense, but it was an engaging thought throughout the day. No, I don't use drugs or hallucinogens ... that was a long time ago in another life.