Poem: "Growing Panes"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem is brought to you by janetmiles. Many science fiction writers have explored the motif of sentient crystals; here's my take on an old and honored concept.

Growing Panes
– a terzanelle

We’re growing, but we’re growing awful slow.
This truth above all else is crystal clear.
We hardly even know what we don’t know.

We cannot let ourselves be formed in fear.
That fire burns more than it births. Believe:
This truth above all else is crystal clear.

We must grow out, not in, and learn to leave
The world that formed us. Give no heed to hate.
That fire burns more than it births. Believe

In life on other worlds. It’s not too late.
How can we plan to kill what we’ve not met?
The world that formed us gives no heed to hate.

Believe we have not doomed ourselves. Not yet.
We must take time to think before we act.
How can we plan to kill what we’ve not met?

This is unacceptable. That’s a fact.
We’re growing, but we’re growing awful. Slow!
We must take time to think before we act.
We hardly even know what we don’t know.

Comments

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like that one. Thank you!

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you like it! I wanted to capture the uncertainty of this phase of evolution, when you don't know for sure whether your race is alone and how the wider universe works ... so full of hope and fear.

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Hope and fear are exactly what I got out of this. And a solid recommendation of patience. I like it.

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

One thing that bothers me about modern society is that drive for speed over safety or good sense.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

The repetition of that one line in each stanza, as well as the way the entire poem is structured, is a great shot at delving into the mind of a crystalline structure. It was odd, really, the way my mind wrapped itself around it - as if each line was a physical line of the crystal poet's body.

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

It worked! I was aiming for that kind of invocation of the lines and planes of a crystal. (I'm a bit of a rockhound.)