Lineal

Photo by tama66. CC0/Public domain license.

Visualize a picture of an apple, one side green,
other, red

Connect by lines—how else?

Look at a lecturer who gestures lineal
connections in air, a teacher with chalk in hand

Arrange facts in an upward slant, parallel or
converging

Arrange geographically, lines of diffusion,
statistical facts reduced to a normal curve

All would be lost without diagrams

Trace history down to the present, up from the
ape

Picture motivation as external through entering
the organism—emerging transformed

Line is inescapable

We are incapable of questioning the reality of its
presence

(Thanks to Freedom and Culture by Dorothy Lees)

Categories Poetry

Pamela Hobart Carter loves Seattle as much for its water and mountains as for its bustle and creativity. She explores the Emerald City daily while walking her dog. Carter used to be a teacher who wrote on the side. Now she is a writer who teaches on the side.

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