Matt posts a pic of Ben Okri’s Lines In Potentis, commisssioned for the London Assembly/Greater London Authority building, City Hall. It’s a quite beautiful poem.
I googled for more about this poem, such as a transcript, a couple of months ago and found nothing. The poem is wrapped around the curving structure of the building, making it hugely enjoyable to experience but difficult to comprehend over time. But googling just now, I find a mini-site on it, including a transcript of Lines In Potentis, and a reading by the poet [in Windows Media].
As Matt notes, the building is by Foster and Partners. I have a note stored up about Foster’s offices, which I visited on the recent London Open House weekend – will post soon.
Here’s a transcript of Okri’s poem:
Lines in potentis
One of the magic centres
Of the world;
One of the world’s
Dreaming places.
Ought to point the way
To the world.
Here lives the great music
Of humanity
The harmonisation of different
Histories, cultures, geniuses,
And dreams.
Ought to shine to the world
And tell everyone
That history, though unjust,
Can yield wiser outcomes.
And out of bloodiness
Can come love
Out of slave-trading
Can come a dance of souls
Out of division, unity;
Out of chaos, fiestas.
City of tradition, conquests,
And variety;
City of commerce and the famous river,
Tell everyone that the future
Is yet unmade.
Many possibilities live in your cellars.
Nightmares and illuminations.
Boredome and brilliance.
Tomorrow’s music sleeps
In undiscovered orchestras,
In unmade violins,
In coiled strings.
Spring waits by the lakes,
Listening to the unfurling daffodils.
Summer lingers with the hyperborean worms,
Awaiting an astonishing command from
The all-seeing eye of ra.
Tomorrow’s music sleeps
In our fingers,
In our awakening souls,
The blossom of our spirit,
The suggestive buds of our hearts.
Tell everyone the idea is to function together
As good musicians would
In undefined future orchestras.
Let the energy of commerce flow,
Let the vision of art heal.
Technology, provide the tools.
Workers of the world
Re-make the world
Under the guidance of inspiration
And wise laws.
Create the beautiful music
Our innermost happiness suggests.
Delight the future.
Create happy outcomes.
And while autumn dallies
With the west wind
And the weeping nightingales
And while winter clears it
Sonorous throat
At the antipodean banquets
Preparing for a speech of hoarfrost
And icicles conjured from living breath,
I want to tell everyone
Through trumpets plated with
The fragrance of roses
That a mysterious reason
Has brought us all together,
Here, now, under the all-seeing
Eye of the sun.Ben Okri
Lines In Potentis
December 2002