parallax

dVerse Poets – Open Link Night 240

photo: learn.corel.com

Arche

The days were wonderfully broken
as joy overwhelmed
the ellipses of confusion
that threatened to interrupt
with no conscience as to feelings for
the things we could not give voice to
and which made us faint with such love
for the very numinous
we could sing
or even dance
but never speak
in a language yet known,
and all around us
the air was on fire.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Note: the word Arche (αρχη) originates in ancient Greece and speaks to the question of what might be the ultimate underlying substance, what is the first principle, but which is also undemonstrable?  (there’s a lot more to it than that of course but that’s essentially the idea). Anaximander is thought to the the first to use it. Anaximander’s student Anaximenes came up with a theory that posited that air was the first principle because it was possible for rarified air to become fire and therefore could become all five elements, meaning that this was the underlying substance.

Paul, pvcann.com