The British Broadcasting Corporation’s Prophets
among Us on Civilisations and Acting like Hubble and Webb
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
Those vaster minds show greater grasp of things,
So, so much larger, like a vision from
On high, like revelations flamed with wings
Or, if a Buddhist, bodhis’ sacred thrum
More beautiful than music of the spheres.
Those brains see patterned silk brocades the rest
Of us would never notice, past frontiers
Of elflike minds like mine, with wisdom’s zest
Pierced. Insight motifs we might never know
Because of glaucous prejudice our eyes
Are covered with, or ignorance aglow
In cataracts which almost act like lies.
Earth’s ampler seers, modern telescopes
More like, are more like true inerrant popes.
~ Phillip Whidden