Pulsar
This poem is inspired by a visit to Jodrell Bank Observatory and specifically a sound file of pulsars ‘singing’ on this page. I’m sort of tallying singing pulsars with Dr John Dee’s idea of Angelic Voices. The symbols in the background are Dee and Kelley’s ‘Angelic Script’ that simply says ‘Pulsar’.
As with some of my other shaped poetry, this picture (like this one about Stanlow Refinery) is at this size means the text is not particularly legible onscreen. Printed at A2 size, as most of my shaped poems are, it reads fine, but the full, unfragmented text is here, should you want to read it.
PULSAR
Yes, I can hear you singing
Warming the cold light of science
With contrapuntal precision
And pulsing – gently – pulsing
I wonder if these motet
tones converging in girdered dish
are the voices Dee and Kelley heard
pulsing – gently – pulsing
and scribed as angelic edict – not a primal
lighthouse signalling the past from
the raging pirouettes of long-dead stars
and pulsing – gently – pulsing
its onscreen trace (a blind rhythm –
the difference between orchestra
and sheet music) anticipates
and pulses – gently – pulses
it’s allegro enlightenment
funnelled through antenna
its story written in green ribbon
and pulsing – gently – pulsing
gently- pulsing
pulsing
sing
to
me
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