Nothing and One

[grant hayes]

Nothing and One

Since umpteenth today, again,
upon thrones of the moment,
Nothing and One
in teeming code have geysered worlds
for a billionth gaze, a famishing spume
through trophic vents, that stays
the slotted earth from its nearaway due.

Effusions of stroke and oval warm
the reeling oceans bladdered
behind galactic scads of keys,
minister germs to the shallows, and there
stir forms - from roiling scum to sirens - alive
with cares, contempt, and chorus, all running
on sap of the fossil sun.

There be monsters, too, mashed up
from the pyroclastic brew, full fettled
to canker hope with acid fang,
or funnel ashen loathing,
revolving to breakback hurtle,
flanking gales of grins to fan
conflagrant rage from the cradle of God.

On laps and palms and tables, portals
yawn to the seismic bloom
and suck the fissured instant - every
carnal bent and carnage - through,
while, hushed beneath,
the gravely turning rind
presents its pits and stipples to the moon.

[divot]

Another one I’ll have to chalk up as homework read. The Skipper, Gilligan and the Professor never a lustful carnal thought prevailed. Stuck on an island with Ginger and Mary Ann. One has to wonder what they were doing behind the trees. I’m still trying to master my meter. I’m interested just not understanding.

[grant hayes]

Nothing and One (a.k.a effusions of stroke and oval) are binary code. The eruptive, geologically prolific imagery is a way of viewing the 'world' of the internet. I know it's pretty abstruse.

[Tanner]

OMG! What density of imagery and command of language. So much meat on the bone, its lovely and overwhelming. You are not a light and easy read, Grant.

[grant hayes]

I will think better of this poem since you see it thus, Tanner. Thank you for being more-than-whelmed 😊

[MHenry]

Hi, grant, late to the party again! This is another one of your grantian masterpieces created in a lyrical and mystical style at which one can only marvel. Stringing together words that have no business being within a paragraph of each other into a wondrous and magical tapestry of surpassing unity, beauty and depth!

[grant hayes]

I thought this festooned galleon had sunk without trace way down the thread, MHenry. Sometimes I love it; sometimes I loathe it. Do you have poems you make that are like that? I like your observation about the inappropriate fraternisation of the words! Hahahahahahaha.

[MHenry]

I think I am rarely ambivalent. I either like what I have written, or I don't.

[AlexandratheLate]

I'm more like you MH in that I either love it (seldom happens) or I don't. That said Grant your work is truly amazing and thought provoking. You are a master of words putting together ideas that I would never think of doing. As Tanner said 'so much meat on the bones'. Separates - pardon the expression - the men from the boys.

[lunar glide]

wow. you have a genius for words that goes beyond ordinary wordsmithing but this time the subject interests me more! do you think we can transcend binary thinking?

[grant hayes]

I think that the binary of nothing and one is at the very heart of existence as both unity and duality. I think our (largely unconscious) imitation of it with our digital technology is fascinating evidence of how the cosmos is written into human beings, generically and individually.

[grant hayes]

Otherwise said, despite outward indications, nothing could be more 'natural' than digital technology, hence my attempt to poetise its world shaping impact with the imagery of vast geological forces.

[lunar glide]

thank you for the reply.

[Suz-zen]

cosmos is written into human beings, generically and individually- your comment above
How, you may ask, did I stumble upon this one? grant hayes

Answer: I have no effing idea!

I was going from pillar to post as I do in art museums and at the Farmer's Market. Drove my old bf nuts!!
Joy joy! Here I Arrived as if by an auspicious push.... or could it be a pull?


I was shoved back in my dining room chair after reading:

Effusions of stroke and oval warm
the reeling oceans bladdered
behind galactic scads of keys,
minister germs to the shallows, and there
stir forms


This entire piece is an accumulation of many thoughts and mysteries that I have been toying with of late in my unending desire to figure things out... existence... past. present and the future- here and if beyond, where?
in regard to your comment about genetics. Have you ever spit into a vial to check your genetics back 5 generations or so? I would be curious to see where it could take you...


LOVE the poem- seriously --- more likes people!

[grant hayes]

Wow, you've really done archaeology with this deeply buried potsherd, Suz-zen! It's strange for me to return to it, as it was something I tinkered with for ages after its initial emergence, yet have not looked at now for a long time.

Funny you should ask about genetics; both my parents have recently done those DNA tests to find out about their deep ancestry. All my DNA, back a couple of millennia, comes from Western Europe, Britain in particular, of course, with lots of Irish, Scots, and West Country in the foreground. I am one thirtieth Spanish - that is the most 'exotic' drop in my blood, which is about as 'white' as it's possible to be. So, not very interesting.

[Suz-zen]

I am fascinated by this all!! Your roots all the way back to the American War for Independence! I can hear the cry,' the redcoats are coming' and now I see one of your ancestors. That is wild! A part of the history books I recall vividly. Grant,... Knights riding with the Black Prince during the Hundred Years War, this summary reads like a story book.... this is a wonderful bedtime story. I will argue that the noted scholar of Gaelic folklore was most likely a secreted poet! His poems buried somewhere... go find it And I will win the bet. Or perhaps his DNA passed on to you. He may have been afraid to write...not enough confidence, time... I am creating my own story. LEt's get the ouija board ... do you know his name??

[grant hayes]

Ah, but the scholar wasn't a direct ancestor of mine, Suz-zen, so no genes of his passed on to me. My g-g-grandfather, his brother, migrated to Australia and became a cattle drover - Australian analog of a cowboy; three of his sons died in World War I. I am descended from their sister.

The redcoat was named William MacLeod, and his regiment was the 76th Foot, present at the surrender at Yorktown.

[Suz-zen]

curses! So my fantasy hits dead end!!

William MacLeod... this is amazing that you were able to gather this much detail... All of this is as though I was just there. This part of history was so real to me.I had a very good teacher at the time. And a genuine interest in this part of our past. The surrender at Yorktown feels real to me.
I will hope to find some good ancestors for you up in my Hellenic tree!