Sunday, February 23, 2014

Anatomies of academic passion

I hate bureaucracy but cannot live and dream without it. This is especially true during my study leave, which I can mostly spend dreaming the possibility of a harmonious world in vivid, ordered colours, sounds and delicious smells. Visit and browse through my Google-locked Artsite’s ‘Poetry and Poetics’ for past daydreaming records.  



IMAGE: Bürokratie / Bureaucracy II by Christian Schnettelker www.manoftaste.de and Flickr 

There is an element of bibliomancy attached to study leaves
Nobody feels particularly eager to divulge.
Instead, she’s buried under piles of hints and applications,
Promises that she’ll find the map of lost scholarly treasures
Mornings which turn to evenings of ideas in motion.
The bureaucratic prophet whispers in her ears
And she departs on journeys with a lot of unrelated baggage
She sheds half way to undefined but glorious destinations.

Meanwhile, the ring of academic inspiration
Partakes in wedding rituals for which it never was intended
It decorates the finger of those brides who loved someone else
And run away with them before the priest completes his pitiful prayers.

The bibliomancy of study leaves is destined to achieve a happy ending
Only because the applicant crafts her destiny
Only because she captures beautiful ideas in her pages’ magic net
Only because the study leave will never acquire fixed purpose
Before her pilgrimage calls into being that temple
In which the ring will rest until its new proposal.

Leeds, 06 February 2014

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