Poetry—because it is language—should not be able to capture lightning fast, complex, perceptual moments, should it?
But look at this by the poet Willie Perdomo:
I go up in smoke and come down in a nod.
Or this, by Tim Seibles (pictured above):
That instant when eyes meet and slide away—even love blinks, looks off like a stranger.
Poetry is able to do this because 1) perception is not instantaneous in the eye, but belongs to the brain 2) it involves parts.
All the poet has to do is combine intelligible parts in time to capture obscurely swift reality in remarkable ways.
Easier said than done, obviously, but we usually don’t think of poetry being able to do this.
Is language doing this as language, or as an actual recording device?
This is an exciting aspect of poetry that both these contestants display for us here.
Look fast! The winner will be exact! And quick!
Marla Muse: Tom, you are such a tantalizing tease. Is poetry merely speech, or a device that actually sees?
