It All Begins: a Poetic Analogy About Life
It All Begins...
It all begins as a point of light,
a spreading blush of blue;
Till soon the entire field is full
with the iridescent hue.
Fickle, though: the slightest move
does banish it;
a blaring of reds and yellows appear.
Trumpet mutes come into play;
and green evolves,
spreading an earthly glow.
Colors shift and shift again;
now showing:
a reprise of all,
displayed in fractured array.
Now spider-web borders
of black are into the pattern wove,
Till shifting and changing for all they are worth,
(show-offs);
they cannot still a pattern repeat:
each one, seen once, and then extinct.
Shifting and changing,
all day, all night,
the glowing colors flow.
And in the crystals' falling shifts,
I see the world,
hear it grind
to a restless, syncopated beat.
Still the colors meld and break and fall
as I sit, staring
through my kaleidoscope of dreams.
History of This Poem
I originally wrote this back in May of 1988, and made some revisions in 2009 and 2010.
Its essence, though, is unchanged. It happened that I had a new kaleidoscope toy in my possession, a different type than the ones we had as kids. Instead of internal bits of plastic or crystalline bits that physically shifted as you turned the case, this one had no moving parts.
It was made of a single tube, and at the end, a clear glass marble was fastened. It magically made kaleidoscopic images from anything at which it was pointed! My mother and I, along with my kids, found this endlessly fascinating.
This, then, was the inspiration for this poem. As a matter of fact, I still have that toy, and bring it out from time to time; it makes me smile.
© 2010 Liz Elias