Poetry as Evidence

1

Imagine the simultaneous viewing of multiple time. Of obvious time, hyper time, orphaned time. Time that unexpectedly shoots off from beneath your feet and races away. Time parallel and co-existing in two geographical memories. One sinking roots, the other a smoke-wisp attached to and forever trailing a body.

Imagine time that is filled with as many silences as with words. Imagine the slow gathering together of time. Moment by moment. Evidence by evidence. 

Imagine the formal presentation of poetry as evidence in a future war crimes tribunal.

2

Imagine the morning newspaper, headlines in couplets, black and white but in verse. Imagine that constellation of words. Truth as told by the stars and birds. Translated by bread and transcribed by daughters. Imagine the clash of silences, the sting and honey of the bee and the lamenting obituary. Imagine night as day and day as night, the moon as witness and the sun a doctor. Nurses as editors, poets as reporters and the village balladeer the week’s ombudsman. Imagine traitors as lovers, outlaws as fathers and renegades as poets.

Imagine talking curtains and storyteller tiffin boxes. Imagine columns becoming cups and rows becoming dogs. Mountain dogs, river dogs, factory dogs, gutter dogs, tree dogs, and kitchen sink dogs. Imagine the colour of that grey.

Imagine the formal presentation of poetry as news of the day.

3

Is it possible to understand the passage of time through poetry?  And if that were so, could we catch a glimpse of the future?