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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Broken Images

I first came across this poem in an unlikely place, for me it summed up - and continues to sum up - the need to discount a "quick-fix" approach to the difficulties we encounter, instead of attempting to accept the immeasurable complexity/chaos of life through a reflective approach which accepts that there is chaos and complexity which requires more than glib "quick fixes".

He is quick, thinking in clear images;
I am slow, thinking in broken images.

He becomes dull, trusting to his clear images;
I become sharp, mistrusting my broken images.

Trusting his images, he assumes their relevance;
Mistrusting my images, I question their relevance.

Assuming their relevance, he assumes the fact;
Questioning their relevance, I question their fact.

When the fact fails him, he questions his senses;
when the fact fails me, I approve my senses.

He continues quick and dull in his clear images;
I continue slow and sharp in my broken images.

He in a new confusion of his understanding;
I in a new understanding of my confusion.

Robert Graves

2 comments:

  1. your comment is even more complicated than the poem itself.. what do you mean by 'quick fixes'?

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  2. A quick-fix to a certain difficulty is like an instant or "canned" remedy/solution that fixes the problem momentarily but never treats the root of the problem.

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