Too close

[Colm Roe]

We're intelligent
understand languages
in boasts
and believe we created maths
instead of discovering tongues,
or just a taste
that might lead  us....

We conquer blanks
squint at Universes, join distant dots
star to star.
 
Below, here 
plants and fauna speak a language
too close to understand

we're intelligent?
 

[indar]

Hi Colm,

I have read this several times and the truth is out---I'm not intelligent enough to understand it---not really.

Perhaps "tongues" refers to language but "taste" refers to the more immediate experience (of the tongue in another context) which we have been removed from by our capacity to intellectualize.

And in not understanding the language of animals and plants we have become disengaged from our environment.

But I can't read this and make it hang together as a coherent whole. What am I missing?

[Colm Roe]

Our fascination with science (which is cool) and what's out there.
And how it seems to neglect real life here...like the things (plants and animals) we eat.
They don't speak...but they do communicate on levels we should try harder to understand.  

[indar]

instead of discovering tongues,
or just a taste
that might lead  us....

Being human puts us in a position of being arrogant I suppose, except for the rare few who practice an extreme form of humility as a religious following---I get that. what's this about discovering tongues or tates that lead us?

[Colm Roe]

'what's this about discovering tongues or tastes that lead us?'

We're intelligent
understand languages
in boasts
and believe we created maths       We think the way we describe the universe (mathematics) is the only way
instead of discovering tongues,      instead of considering there could be many ways to describe it
or just a taste                                'taste'...or maybe just one other way!
that might lead  us....



 

[indar]

You just jogged something in my memory but I can't quite get at it--something some astrophysicist said about a smell or sound or something we might expect from some aspect of the universe. Now I'll never get to sleep---its my bedtime. Good Night

[Dave]

Another weird himan ability is that we analyze and judge ourselves. We are our mirror. A physical impossibility. I got most of what the poem was about though it feels indeed a bit cryptic. The only things that still dontvreach me are the title and reference to close in the poem plus the line' Below, here' which loses me both on word and punctuation

[Colm Roe]

You just jogged something in my memory but I can't quite get at it--something some astrophysicist said about a smell or sound or something we might expect from some aspect of the universe. Now I'll never get to sleep---its my bedtime. Good Night

An astronaut said space has a burnt aroma...I suppose we shouldn't be surprised about that...although, I would have thought a vacuum wouldn't have enough atoms for the smell to register! And of course it's not a complete vacuum...sleep tight 
And he/she obviously didn't take their helmet off to take a whiff 
 

[Colm Roe]

 The only things that still don't reach me are the title and reference to close in the poem plus the line' Below, here' which loses me both on word and punctuation

'Too close' alludes to the way we spend so much money and energy on space and beyond. A few decades ago physicists (including Hawking) were talking about how close they were to having a complete understanding (Unified field theory) of all the laws of physics...how did that work out! I think know we (and all other life) would be far better off if most of those resources were directed 'Below, here'. 

 

[indar]

Even me own mother said "well if things get too bad here we'll have to go to another planet." Its not that uncommon a thought. So go terraform Mars instead of taking care of our own yard--good idea.