strange radiation: the pool of radiance archive
Adventures with an unreliable narrator.
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Nov 2 06: something you should see
This is one of the most moving things I’ve read in a long time; it has haunted me since I first saw it, which was about a month ago. And if you’ve never seen it either—well, now you have.
Against Entropy
The worm drives helically through the wood
And does not know the dust left in the bore
Once made the table integral and good;
And suddenly the crystal hits the floor.
Electrons find their paths in subtle ways,
A massless eddy in a trail of smoke;
The names of lovers, light of other days—
Perhaps you will not miss them. That’s the joke.
The universe winds down. That’s how it’s made.
But memory is everything to lose;
Although some of the colors have to fade,
Do not believe you’ll get the chance to choose.
Regret, by definition, comes too late;
Say what you mean. Bear witness. Iterate.—John M. Ford
Mike Ford passed away on September 25. He was an astonishing writer who could dash things like the above off at a moment’s notice. In the case of this particular sonnet, that’s pretty much what happened. He was a dear friend to friends of mine, and he was a vibrant part of the community at Making Light. I only met him in person the once, but he was as fine and fascinating company as his writing had suggested he would be. He also had truly remarkable eyebrows. This is hardly the only thing he created that stays with the reader for a long time—far from it—but it’s the thing I wanted to share today.