insatiable curiosities orbit consciousness
strung pearls of upended epiphenomena
ancient aluminum awareness permeating time
charting momentary courses through mental processes
angles of sensation and perception grinding experience
under electric hazel skies capable of impacting behavior
pouring parallelism down the steps of the prefrontal cortex
mere echoes, faint rumors upon the air of philosophy
white irises climb neurophysiological cliff faces
roaring seascapes of recurrent thalamo-cortical resonance
rational kettles steaming orange blossoms of knowledge
round numinous volumes prefiguring the world-knot
crevices, pathways, transmogrified thought patterns
fossils hounding chained gates while endless paradoxes
gleam on clay surfaces pounding immortal stardust
forming luminescent filigreed theory enhancers
that reveal ineffable intrinsic qualia unwinding
memories, emotions, and intentions disciplined
volition as apprehended conscious goal images
discerning global broadcast messages to the self:
this dominant, enduring context
Linked to dVerse Poets Pub and the amazing prompt by Charles Miller http://dversepoets.com/2012/04/12/tripping-the-cosmos/
Chromapoetica 
I like the mental scenery this one seems to project. Some kind of living landscape you created in those words in the first three stanzas — electric hazel skies (feels ilke looking into some captivating eyes), white iris along harsh precarious cliff surfaces, and the noise of sea representing probably all the voices and thoughts in one’s head. Pathways, and fossils to find, and other treasures.
Rational kettles that steam orange blossoms of knowledge — I picture something just boiling, so eager to let off. I like this line.
The end seems like the release of every property that was known of self, thus leading to consciousness to meaning of all one’s experiences. It sounds like an awesome journey.
I’m thrilled this spoke to you as the issues of consciousness have long enthralled me. I’ve pulled together from the philosophical, psychological and poetic, including thoughts/research from William James, Arthur Schopenhauer, Bernard Baars, John Riker, and others. All filtered, integrated, and aesthetically dressed through my own ‘consciousness’. Thanks so much for coming by to read!
def a lot going on in the mental cavity as we try to process all that is coming in from so many directions at one time, our behavior spinning out of them as we package what we can into boxes that bring a little order to the chaos…for better or worse….
when i read this this morning i knew it would be perfect for the prompt today…smiles.
Big smiles!!! I’m shaking I’m so excited.
love the way this drew me into the innerworkings of the mind both in its physicality and its abstraction.
Thanks Sheila, I’m sure your psychology/neuroscience knowledge took you on an especially interesting journey. Great to see you, thanks for the feedback!
Now that is a poem! Very, very, very cool. Just love the word choices. Too bad you don’t have google +, this one would definitely get a +1. Glad to see you and poetry made amends. anyhow, great piece. thanks
Thank you, that’s a cherished compliment!
smiles…when i saw the prompt, you were the first person i thought of..and i knew you would write the perfect poem for it..and you did…smiles
Huge smiles!!! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your encouragement.
Life is so complex, and yet, so simple too. Sometimes you write things that I would not understand in a million years and yet, somehow you make them seem so natural as you write of them and, reachable even to an un-scientific mind.
Amazing write again Anna but then, your usually are.
Thanks, I do so appreciate you follow me along these myriad paths through the thickets.
I knew you were gonna say that.
I’m kinda sidekick in a deep south sorta way.
http://charleslmashburn.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/our-galaxy-grand/
Of course you did Charles :).
ah’ight den
Felt I’d been injected on an innerspace journey of your mind – almost at the speed of light encountering white iris dualities, dropping from mental cliffs, riding surges and cells coping with a flood of science, images and colors bathed in poetry. Good stuff, Anna!
Sounds like fun when you put it that way Gay, mind as amusement park ride with a rocket engine :).
Ah, qualia… One of those philosophico-scientific debates that I have only read about tangentially. I am glad that you make it real with your poetry, bringing it closer to home and inside the self for me. I have read some things which lead me to believe that consciousness occurs at the quantum level, and I was intrigued by some articles I read by Penrose and Hameroff, whose work on microtublues is very intriguing in its implications not just for perhaps explaining consciousness but perhaps something more. Still, as a Wittgensteinian, I wait for the other shoe to fall on these theories and expect still that science will not explain who or what we are. For, when we get down to it, in my way of thinking anyway, this is just the explanation of the wetware/hardware, but laguage is autonomous in many ways from this. They make language and consciousness possible but ultimately do not “explain” it. My favorite theory in this regard is Alastair Hannay’s anthropological-existential-evolutionary speculation about the relationship between mother and child and the extended period of child rearing.
The global workspace theory, put forth by cognitive psychologist Bernard Baars is currently the most appealing to me because it dovetails many new to me scientific viewpoints with my long held philosophical perspective. This theory views consciousness as, “the publicity organ of the nervous system; its contents, which correspond roughly with conscious experience, are distributed throughout the system”. Accordingly, “any conscious message must be globally informative” and “internally consistent”. Baars addresses the question of volition by stating, “volition always involves conscious goal images that are tacitly edited by multiple unconscious criteria. Abstract concepts may be controlled by similar goal images, which maybe conscious only fleetingly.”
Philosopher, John Riker, in addressing the integration of the unconscious into ethics urges us to see consciousness as, “the higher level structural organization of the psyche [which] centers in epistemic and normative systems for resolving any inner or outer conflict.” He argues that consciousness has long been viewed in hierarchical terms as a system that should have a dominant part, a totalitarian ego that creates rigid defense boundaries and prioritizes needs. However, an ecologic conception of the psyche involves listening to multiple areas of conscious experience: emotions, cognitive capacities, character traits and personal unifications, in a mutually enhancing way. In this way a holistic, integrated self can become fully functional and actualized.
This connects to the global workspace model because in theory specialized areas and networks can access global broadcasts. “Global Workspace theory suggests that consciousness enables multiple networks to cooperate and compete in solving problems, such as retrieval of specific items from immediate memory. The overall function of consciousness is to provide widespread access, which in turn may serve functions of coordination and control.” (Baars 1988) This cognitive psychology theory provides an ecological systems framework for understanding the various processes, demands, conflicts, conscious and unconscious messages, and parallel activities of the mind.
Thank you again for the prompt I know I’ll return to it for inspiration.
It goes without saying – but I’ll say it anyway – that you have the perfect approach to Charles’ poetic challenge. Two thumbs up!
Well, I’m glad you did, thank you :).
I love the whole thing. One thing that really strikes me is –
electric hazel skies capable of impacting behavior
pouring parallelism down the steps of the prefrontal cortex
that could mean so many things. it could mean drugs, or specifically, psychedelic drugs. it could mean that the atmosphere (so many meaning to that) affects our thinking. i just LOVE that line!!
For some reason your comment got caught by the spam filter but now it’s saved :), sorry about that. Thank you, I’m glad it spoke to you and the wonderful thing about experimental poetry is, I think, it expands the potential meaning of many of the lines. I like your take on atmosphere here.
Wow. And then I read the comments and your replies. Wow and double-wow. I’m not even sure what to say beyond that, except that reading all this made me consider an omni-consciousness feeding our individual minds. Sci-fi becomes sci-fact faster than I can keep up.
Thank you Patti, omni-consciousness is an interesting idea; Jung believed in the collective unconscious.
anna- this actually blew the circuitry in my brain. i KNEW this prompt would be totally your thing! there are words in here i never even knew existed. What it did speak to me about- at a very simple level, was how science is can be structured, interlinking, symbiotic, BUT deep within it are things that can only be perveeived on an indivisual basis- and that that can be very beautiful in itself. I guess in a way this shows the contradiction of science- the tangible and the intangible- if i am making any sense at all!
Ha, you are not the first, nor likely the last, to accuse my experimental poetry of causing brain damage :). I love what you’ve taken away; I think you’re making perfect sense.
Commanding powers expressed in a commanding poem. Not an easy read, but a rewarding one.
Thank you David, I do appreciate the effort, especially with the experimental pieces. My responsibility to readers is to make it worth that effort so I’m happy to hear it was for you.
I think this is best where you ground it in images, like “rational kettles steaming orange blossoms of knowledge” for example. Gives me something to imagine, and that’s a strong picture.
Yes, I try to sprinkle in some clearer pictures among the more abstract or nonrepresentational passages as experiments are usually more successful when they employ some well-trod protocols. Thank you for the feedback.
This for me was a recurring example of your poetics of process: emphasis upon the motion and architecture of thought as an end in itself, the door marked “about thinking” instead of the one marked “thoughts.” Ample territory to explore here and a fun reflection on the how of the why. – Brendan
There are some neuroscientists and philosophers that claim consciousness is a grand delusion. A useful fiction as we have no other understandable, intuitive way of framing the world, so we go on believing in it. I think we just haven’t wrapped our minds around its reality, much more fun to explore it behind the ‘about thinking’ door than staple it to the DOA wall.