A parent
In the relationship
Between to be gotten
The larger to the smaller
The goaled in proportion
Amidst just us
Sum times christened
The divine proportion
And it doesn’t take
A mathematical genus
To divine its kind
Never the less
As if
Sum
Knew specious
And miss conceive
The gold in mean
Barren resemblance to
The sores of our being
An aesthetic
Of beauty
In nature
And human arts
Desserting know one
The hole slew
To gather as won
And when de-part
Leaving soully
Good will
That is
Grasping the incalculable
After math
This is a geek poem about the golden proportion, or golden ratio. In mathematics, two quantities are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities. The Greek letter phi is used to signify this value of 1.618. The golden ration holds a special fascination in mathematics, architecture, and art. The golden ratio is considered to represent beautiful proportion, often found in nature.
In this poem, the relationship between the larger to the smaller is defined beautifully by kindness. In computer age parlance Kindness 1.618 — a soft wear if you will. Social justice issues always involve power differentials, and hard ware is meaningless without soft wear. Without kindness, social relationships will necessarily be trapped in perpetual struggle, with neither the larger or the smaller experiencing the beauty of peace. Neither justice nor peace is a finely engineered and calculating existence. Both justice and peace flourish in generosity and grace. Oftentimes justice comes through those who have a steady experience of peace that creates sacred spaces enough for the hard work of justice to be performed without resentment, growing hurts. Living out of generosity creates conditions conducive to generosity. Like produces like, sometimes. Love produces love, eventually. Though like is more of a product than love. Love is the way. Love loves love. As life produces life, love produces love. The seamless reciprocity of love perpetuates itself and invites others to participate in love. There is necessarily always more room to grow and make the circle wider. For another geeky poem on this theme, see Wading for Godel, and ode to Kurt Godel and his Incompleteness Theorem which mathematically proves that science, ideologies, and philosophy — that is, anything that is based on any set of propositions — is necessarily incomplete and there are always true propositions which always lie beyond the perspective of any given belief system. Enough geekiness for one day? You can always simplify. As the Dalai Lama most succinctly summarized awe, “Kindness is my religion.” May you find kindness often in your days, and if there is not kindness, perhaps you are the one to bring it.