Dancing a Whirling Dervish

Here and there
life clusters
amidst the random
Brownian motion of
atoms and molecules
drawing them
into an order
all it’s own
combating entropy
for their allotted lifespan
they dance defiance
like whirling dervishes
celebrating passionately
their moments in the light
poignant in the knowledge
that entropy
will win in the end
their parts
deliquescing
into the dark
lucky if they
leave a tiny trail
to mark their passage…

© Andrew Wilson, 2024

Over at the Poets Pub, Melissa Lemay in Poetics invites us to riff on the paintings of Alma Thomas – I chose: Scarlet Sage Dancing a Whirling Dervish (1976), acrylic on canvas, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York

14 thoughts on “Dancing a Whirling Dervish

  • July 17, 2024 at 10:09 am
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    I like the shift from scientific to philosophical in your poem, Andrew, especially the lines:
    ‘they dance defiance
    like whirling dervishes
    celebrating passionately
    their moments in the light’.
    As poets we do ‘leave a tiny trail’ to mark our passage.

    Reply
    • July 17, 2024 at 10:22 am
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      We studied the Metaphysical poets at school and the effects linger on, Kim…

      Reply
  • July 17, 2024 at 11:33 am
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    This is a unique and interesting response to the challenge, Andrew.

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    • July 17, 2024 at 12:46 pm
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      Thank you Robbie, it was a great prompt from Melissa…

      Reply
  • July 17, 2024 at 5:14 pm
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    Oh I love this one. Especially:
    “celebrating passionately
    their moments in the light”

    “their parts
    deliquescing
    into the dark
    lucky if they
    leave a tiny trail
    to mark their passage…”
    So true. I think we all leave a little glimmer, if even the faintest.✨

    Reply
    • July 17, 2024 at 6:06 pm
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      Glad you like it, Melissa, have to do my best when you are in the chair…

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  • July 18, 2024 at 12:52 am
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    You have captured this very well, Andrew. I like the idea of little communities clustering in the larger picture of things. Just like us. Your ending is sobering and yet very true!

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    • July 18, 2024 at 5:53 am
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      Thanks, Dwight, we cannot shy away from our ending – it should animate our living…

      Reply
  • July 18, 2024 at 3:31 pm
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    Lucky, indeed! Brownian motion describes it perfectly. When poetry is married with science, the results are spectacular.

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  • July 21, 2024 at 5:15 pm
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    Poignant but I love the ending: lucky if they
    leave a tiny trail
    to mark their passage…

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    • July 21, 2024 at 10:43 pm
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      Perhaps the secret of living well is never forgetting our ultimate fate but proceeding as if we have forever…

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  • July 22, 2024 at 3:37 pm
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    i don’t know what I was expecting, but I sure wasn’t expecting Einstein’s theorem, but there you go, and it fits beautifully with the mosaic.

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    • July 23, 2024 at 2:35 pm
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      I wish I had been born in the age of Polymaths, Paul (preferably as a man of means!) but I do like to mix a little science into my art…

      Reply

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