A circa 1977 poetry reading attended by noted British poets: Chris Cheek and Bob Cobbing, someone known as B.G., Jeremy Adler (far right)—noted Goethe Elective Affinities reaction scholar—and Steven Smith. [1] |
This was cited by American poet John Spollon in his 1894 article-poem “Among the Bards”.![]()
“My idea in the new novel The Elective Affinities is to show forth social relationships and the conflicts between them symbolically [in symbolic concentration]” (28 Aug 1808—to Riemer ) and “the moral symbols in the natural sciences, that of the elective affinities invented and used by the great Bergman, are more meaningful and permit themselves to be connected better with poetry and society.”— Goethe (1809), comment to Riemer Jul 24
“Goethe’s poems exercise a great sway over me, not only by their meaning, but also by their rhythm. It is a language which stimulates me to composition.”— Ludwig van Beethoven (c.1815) [7]
“The rhythm is an unconscious result of the poetic mood. If one should stop to consider it mechanically, when about to write a poem, one would become bewildered and accomplish nothing of real poetic value. All that is poetic in character should be rhythmically treated! Such is my conviction; and if even a sort of poetic prose should be gradually introduced, it would only show that the distinction between prose and poetry had been completely lost sight of.”— Johann Goethe (1797), “Comment [or letter] to Friedrich Schiller [1]
“What is done by what is called myself is, I feel, done by something greater than myself in me.”
“Powers and thoughts within us, that we/know not, till they rise/Though the stream of conscious action from where the/Self in secret lies.”Which, in turn, seems to find corroboration in Maxwell’s famous 1847 (age 16) comment that:
“The only thing which can be directly perceived by the senses is force, to which may be reduced light, heat, electricity, sound and all the other things which can be perceived by the senses.”
At quite uncertain times and places,
The atoms left their heavenly path,
And by fortuitous embraces,
Engendered all that being hath.
And though they seem to cling together,
And form "associations" here,
Yet, soon or late, they burst their tether,
And through the depths of space career.
So we who sat, oppressed with science,
As British asses, wise and grave,
Are now transformed to wild Red Lions,
As round our prey we ramp and rave.
Thus, by a swift metamorphosis,
Wisdom turns wit, and science joke,
Nonsense is incense to our noses,
For when Red Lions speak, they smoke.
Hail, Nonsense! Dry nurse of Red Lions,
From thee the wise their wisdom learn,
From thee they cull those truths of science,
Which into thee again they turn.
What combination of ideas,
Nonsense alone can wisely form!
What sage has half the power that she has,
To take the towers of Truth by storm?
"The second law of thermodynamics — entropy — is also, as we have learned, the law of increase of the random element, i.e. every system loses energy — but synergy means behavior of whole systems, unpredicted by the behavior of any separate part. EN-ergy behaves entropically. SYN-orgy behaves syntropically. God is entropy, and god is syntropy. God is synergy. God is energy. And god is always a verb — the verbing of integrity."
No retreat No surrender No true love No job No house No money No girlfriend No car | |
A 2009 photo of a type of street graffiti like poetry, found written on the wall of an abandoned building in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, Africa, which captures an aspect of the Alley equation. |