"Phenomena, Noumena, Startling Sparrows" by Stephen Kampa

Soundtrack to this episode (it's Stephen Kampa!)Topics discussed in this episode include:-Go read New Verse Review!-Go listen to my talk on SLEERICKETS about Horace's Ars Poetica!-Go listen to the mighty Fer de Lance!-The Sleerickets Stephen Kampa episode-Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason-From Transcendental Idealism to Transcendentalism-Romanticism as post-Kantian reaction -Schelling, Schlegel, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Schleiermacher, Nietzsche, Freud, Coleridge, Emerson, etc. etc.-Contemptus Mundi-The inauthenticity of the nihilist everyman-The Protestant anti-rationalist tradition-Spooky Calvinist symbolism + German Romanticism + Hinduism 101 + Patriotism = Transcendentalism-Death and Love conceived ornithologically-More dialectical poems! Text of poem:Phenomena, Noumena, Startling SparrowsFaced with the world mistaken for the world,I’m not confused: it seems so sensibleTo call the loose, cyclonic pulse of leavesOn sidewalks “physics,” and not a miracle. I understand a prophet undeceives Himself when, limping by the roadkill curledBeside the curb, he thinks theodicyInadequate for even bestial pain,Or when, dispersing the loud shroud of fliesThat swaddles it, he wonders how the saneEscape their own conclusions. Sense defiesEvery compendium of mystery. And if I’m senseless, then, for holding thisWorld most enlightening when its premisesGrow thinnest, I am glad to be struck dumb.Look: fireflies punctuate the night with greenEpigrams on love, petunias keenFor the dead possum, and electrons hum Concentric hymns to probabilityWhile leaf-swirls sing in fractal harmony.Best is this line of sparrows that have shown Their utter distance from the disapprovingCaws of the crows by fleshing out a movingEllipsis leading into the unknown. Support the showVISIT MY WEBSITE HERE.BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok:  @versecraftSend me a note at: [email protected] favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets  Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight  Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)