Reading · Singing, each to each

“. . . that Light consists of Rays differently refrangible, which . . . were according to the degrees of refrangibility, transmitted towards diverse parts of the wall . . .”

—Sir Isaac Newton, quoted in Daniel Boorstin’s The Discoverers
original source: ‘A Letter of Mr. Isaac Newton … containing his New Theory about Light and Colors’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 80 (19 Feb. 1671/2), pp. 3075-3087.

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Newton split a light
with a prism knife
and then bent
the broken beam
back together
with a double-curved lens
he marveled
that light consists
of rays differingly
refrangible
according to their degrees
the rays once divided
are directed
towards diverse parts
of the wall
according to their degrees
each color bends
according to its kind
and rests in its own
proper resting place
redirected by the change
in medium
air to glass
glass to air
to glass to air
and then alights on the wall
like a brave but tired butterfly
the glass medium
transmits the secret
message
hidden all this time:
invisible waves
washing on the shores
of my eyes’
retina-nets,
catching colors
like elusive fish
and sorting them by kind.
so little rainbows dance
over the chaos
of the shoe pile
when the front door
opens and closes.

Refrangible

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