Tag: notes

It’s a Swiss watch.

Did you get it?

This poem is about the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, who was known as ‘the Obscure’ due to his complex and self-contradictory ideas. He was sometimes known as the ‘weeping philosopher,’ having a somewhat downbeat view of the universe.

Heraclitus spoke in quasi-riddles about the equivalence of opposites. His declaration that ‘the way up and the way down are the same’ confused people of his time, and many students since. He also said several times and in several ways that ‘you can’t step twice into the same river,’ which became a source of inspiration for other well known poets and poems.

The speaking voice of the poem is meant to sound a bit antique and high-brow; something like an ancient nobleman speaking with a peer. I kinda made up the part about Heraclitus evolving from wise counselor to street preacher.

The only real recorded works from Heraclitus were his ‘Fragments‘; which contain various big ideas but in a broken and jumbled style.

This tiny poem written on an airplane seemed hardly worth publishing at first. But it has somehow stood the test of time, at least in my opinion.

Sometimes poems are just a simple sketch, and nothing more.

This poem got started as a very different poem, and changed beyond recognition by the time it was done. But I kept the title exactly the same as it was in the first draft.

‘La Chaux du Fonds’ is a major Swiss watchmaking town in the Jura valley in western Switzerland. The ‘golden bridges’ and ‘balance wheel’ are simply parts of any mechanical watch. It is the balance wheel that really creates the heartbeat of the watch; it ‘metes out the tics’ so to speak.

I try to avoid these kinds of somewhat-arcane references, especially in the first stanza where the reader is just getting his/her feet on the ground. But in this case the point was for the speaker to sound a bit aloof and self-important. To make a reference or two, which would only be understood by someone with Swiss watch experience, would be a very Swiss thing to do.

That self importance is also why the two stanzas start with ‘this pocket watch’ and ‘this music box’…. the way an aloof sales person might approach you in a Swiss shop. That is: without grace, but with more knowledge than you… and a bred desire to display that he/she has more knowledge than you.

I wanted the two first stanzas to mimic each other; not only in structure but also in their reference to something a bit harsh and disturbing. Obviously ‘without a soul’ does that. ‘Metes out tics’ tries to be similarly disturbing; the watch in this phrasing is the master and we are the slave of it. I wanted you to read the first two stanzas, and feel you had seen some things that are not quite right, even if the speaker in the poem considered things to be just fine. The curse is simple and (hopefully) a bit mysterious as well.