Feeling the Blank
A historical view of mental emptiness
Bonk the Cro-Magnon reclined in his cave
sucking a dinosaur bone,
surveying the walls of his stony enclave
he scanned the wall-art of his home,
"I've painted black bison and mammoths and deers,
sabre tooth tigers and stickmen with spears.
I've drawn horses and aurochs and cave dwelling pets
and dozens of red ochre hand silhouettes.
I can't quite conceive of anything more
to add to my Paleolithic décor,
and I've got one more wall that needs something appealing...
but I'm feeling the blank,
a most primitive feeling."
"Three things cannot be hidden,"
said the Buddha to the youth,
"the Sun we see up in the sky,
the Moon, and then…
the Truth.
And actually there’s a fourth thing
…but I didn't write it down,
so I'll inform you most assuredly,
the next time I'm in town.
You know I sat beneath the Bodhi tree
meditating fifty days,
and finally reached Enlightenment
emerging from a daze,
it's this unreal experience I feel I have to thank,
for showing me Nirvana where I could feel the blank!"
Michelangelo thought as he stared up above
at the ceiling of Chapel Sistine,
what image was worthy of showing his love
to God in this heavenly scene.
"I've painted angels and prophets and Christ,
serpentine devils and lambs sacrificed,
Genesis, Noah and Adam and Eve,
their expulsion from Eden and what some believe
are the most sacred depictions to date,
of God the almighty and mortal man's fate.
What more can there be to paint on this ceiling...?
I'm feeling the blank,
a most heretical feeling."
Dickens looked down at an empty white page
flooded in candlelight,
He needed a starter, a line to engage
a reader's attention on sight,
"My quill is unconscious, it hasn't a clue
of how to begin - what line to pursue
it's in a damn coma should I be so frank,
it's quite evidently... feeling the blank!"
.... wait just a second, it's starting to move,
it's starting to get in a narrative groove,
what's this it's written? it doesn't seem bad...
one of the better first lines that I've had;
"It was the best of times,
it was the worst of rhymes...(?)"
Ian Cunnold :)
