The phrase "New Maps of Hell" isn't mine. It was the title of a book by Kingsley Amis but it has, googling leads me to believe, been fairly widely used (ripped off) by other people - including me.

The poem was something I wrote while travelling. I've forgotten what specifically inspired it. I won't say what I think about this one until I hear what other people think. I wouldn't want to prejudice the outcome one way or the other.

(For some of the terminology it probably helps if you are a mathematician by training.)

Maps of Hell
(c) Robert Hale 2000

The strange geometries of our lives
Form fractal paths of lies
Arcane as Warlock's spells
The topography of our fate
The discontinuities of hate
Are maps of Hell
New maps of Hell

The equations of the beat
Form shapes of light and heat
The tyranny of the bell
Sine wave curves of sound
Invert the pattern and the ground
On maps of Hell
New maps of Hell

Intersecting sets of dreams
Venn matrices of screams
A shattered empty shell
Broken into random shapes
Whose scattered fragments make
New maps of Hell
New maps of Hell

Vescere bracis meis.

Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.

Well...Poetry is supposed to make you feel...something...
This made me feel really mathmatically inferior...

quote:

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Originally posted by TrossL:
Well...Poetry is supposed to make you feel..._something... _
This made me feel really mathmatically inferior...

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It isn't a poem about maths though - it's a poem using mathematical metaphors for life in general.
Still I take your point,. you need to understand the mathematical terms for the metaphors to make sense. That's one reason why I've never been completely satisfied with it myself. It's a little too obscure.

Vescere bracis meis.

Read all about my travels around the world here.
Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog.