Fractal Shadows

Athens, Georgia
March 2, 2015; revised February 2, 2016

Like the jagged spine of the Karakoram
as seen from the heights of Harmukh,
to folds within folds on the face of K2,
indented with valleys of shadow and snow,

creased with ravines and ribbons of ice,
heaped with scree and hills of rubble,
with rills and pores reprising peaks
in the span of the Karakoram.

Like the shoreline of Ireland
from Mizen to Malin, sculpture
of oceans and rain, which whittled
the hills and chiseled the headlands

and carved out Donegal Bay
where inlets and coves
of Killybegs Harbor reprise
the whole shoreline of Éire.

Like profiles of mountains
and coastlines of islands, the glories
of nature and goodness of God -
our souls project a fractal shadow.

So render your day in a tiny diary,
a year in an honest Christmas letter.
Confess your career in a resume.
Draft your own obituary.

We span these scales with a singular flair -
from whispered prayer to epitaph
across the realm, recurrence maps.
The sum of our lives is a fractal affair.

The Julia Set, a fractal