The Irrelevance of Patterns

Pliny the Elder raised an eyebrow.

What's this about the irrelevance of patterns? he asked.

Oh you noticed! I said.

Of course I noticed, he replied. I noticed you didn't explain it very well.

I can't explain it very well, I said. It's either nonsense or something very important. Do you want me to try again?

You may as well, he said.

Alright then. We humans are programmed to look for patterns, do you agree?

No.

Well, that's that then, I said, crossly.

No go on, for the sake of argument, said Pliny.

And yet the pattern has no meaning in itself. It's just the irrelevant trace of a process, I continued.

I assume you are thinking about ripple patterns in the sand, said Pliny.

Yes. The patterns are formed by the, um, well, whatever sand patterns are formed by.

The sea, said Pliny kindly, and the wind, and the tides, and occasionally eels.

Eels! Pliny, now I've lost my thread.

The patterns are formed by natural processes, prompted Pliny.

Yes. And when we see the patterns, we wonder how they were made.

In that case they are not irrelevant, said Pliny, gravely.

I'm just saying, I said, that the important things are the sea and the tides and the winds and the eels, and it wouldn't matter at all whether their actions made a pattern or not. Everything would still be exactly the same.

Except for the pattern, said Pliny. But I thought you liked patterns. Why are you trying to negate them?

I'm not. I'm just trying to see them for what they really are.

I don't think you have, said Pliny.

Tiger Lily Swallows the Sea

Tiger Lily loves Port Noarlunga,
she especially loves it today.
She walks up Clare Street under blue trees and sky
till it's laid out as if on a tray.
She swallows the air, which is draftful and cool
And eats up the lifesavers' tent.
She devours the reef and the jetty
and the steps that are made of cement.

Tiger Lily loves Port Noarlunga
She especially loves it today.
She swallows the sea which is wine green and blue
She swallows the sand and the seaweed too.
She wishes to swallow it all down inside her
if only her tummy were bigger and wider.

Tiger Lily loves Port Noarlunga
She especially loves it today.
She swallows the children
She swallows a ball,
She swallows the cliffs that are crunchy and tall,
She wishes that she could just swallow it all
and keep it forever this way.

Tiger Lily loves Port Noarlunga
She especially loves it today.
She thinks if she could
drink the tide in full flood
and take in the sky
through the gap in her eye,
if she could just bite
at the dog on the right
which is tied to a board
and is being ignored

then this will have been a good day