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    Confusion Matrix and Other Poems
    Confusion Matrix and Other Poems
    Confusion Matrix and Other Poems
    Ebook142 pages1 hour

    Confusion Matrix and Other Poems

    By David James Murray

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    About this ebook

    David J. Murray's Confusion Matrix and Other Poems is a collection of poetry that weaves together many different components of life using the thread of our most unavoidable emotion-confusion. Language and content combine beautifully as Murray seamlessly blends concrete detail into abstraction. This mellifluous marriage of the tangible and the universal shows that confusion is an emotion as valuable to the human experience as fear or grief or even love. We move smoothly from one aspect of life to another, from one poem to the next, carried along by the familiar and inevitable undercurrent of confusion.

    The title work, "Confusion Matrix", takes us on a winding, existential path through the confusion created by man's examination of nature, love and life itself. This epic saga is followed by ten sets of poems, each with a specific theme, including art, music and even madness. Whether about a change in seasons or an unthinkable tragedy, Murray's extraordinary poems speak to the questions we all ask ourselves during the most quiet and thoughtful moments in life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateNov 19, 2007
    ISBN9780595898787
    Confusion Matrix and Other Poems
    Author

    David James Murray

    David J. Murray retired in 1995 as emeritus professor of psychology at Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. His first book of poetry, Confusion Matrix and Other Poems, was published in November of 2007. Murray has also written A History of Western Psychology and Gestalt Psychology and the Cognitive Revolution.

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      Book preview

      Confusion Matrix and Other Poems - David James Murray

      confusion matrix

      and

      other poems david j. murray

      iUniverse, Inc.

      New York Lincoln Shanghai

      confusion matrix and other poems

      Copyright © 2007 by David James Murray

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying,

      recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without

      the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief

      quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

      iUniverse

      2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100

      Lincoln, NE 68512

      www.iuniverse.com

      1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses

      or links contained in this book may have changed

      since publication and may no longer be valid.

      The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily

      reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      ISBN: 978-0-595-45577-5 (pbk)

      ISBN: 978-0-595-69586-7 (cloth)

      ISBN: 978-0-595-89878-7 (ebk)

      Printed in the United States of America

      Contents

      INTRODUCTION

      CONFUSION MATRIX

      I

      II

      III

      IV

      V

      VI

      VII

      VIII

      IX

      X

      INTRODUCTION

      A ‘confusion matrix’ refers to a printed table showing how often a person listening, say, to the telephone confuses the sound of one letter with that of

      another. For example, the sound of’m’ might be confused with the sound of

      ‘n’. In testing how well a new telephone system is operating, a technician

      might ask a number of participants to listen to a sequence of letters spoken

      over the phone and write down, after each, what letter they thought they had

      heard. A table can then be constructed showing how often the sound of ‘m’

      was confused with the sound of ‘a’, ‘b’ and so on up to ‘z’. The table will

      show, for example, that the sound of ‘m’ is confused more often with the

      sound of ‘n’ than it is with the sound of ‘k’.

      The subtitle of confusion matrix is given at the start of the eponymous

      poem as a pavane for the death of certainty. Just as the word ‘waltz’ can refer

      either to the dance itself, or to the music written for a waltz to be danced to,

      so the word ‘pavane’ can refer either to a dance that was popular in renaissance europe, or to the music for that dance. Usually, a pavane was a slow

      dance for several couples, but it has also had a specialized meaning, namely, a

      slow dance performed by a single performer at a solemn commemoration of

      the recent death of a member of a royal family.

      The following verses, therefore, depict, in a dance-like rhythm, the sense

      of sadness that accompanies the loss, by a person, of certainty about some-

      thing. What that ‘something’ is will vary from person to person. Confusion is

      here viewed as a feeling in its own right that can cause strong emotions no

      matter what the confusion is about.

      Following the long poem confusion matrix are several sets of short poems;

      these sets were not originally written as such, but were put together for the

      purposes of this compilation from files containing poems written at different

      times over many years. But no matter what the topic, there is a common

      undercurrent that matches the feeling-tone of confusion matrix. For example,

      the last five poems in the set about romance demonstrate a confusion in the

      writer’s mind about the desirability of being attracted to somebody he does

      not really like very much. However, most of these poems are stand-alone

      works that do not necessarily have to be considered within the context of the

      set that includes them.

      i wish to express my deep gratitude to sylvia hains, phd, and to rachel

      breau, mlis, for their assistance with the preparation of the manuscript for

      publication; and to esther murray, née mongrain, for her patience and

      encouragement during the writing and processing for publication of this

      not-so-slim volume.

      CONFUSION MATRIX

      A Pavane for the Death of Certainty

      1

      Into the hollow of this heightened care

      i wove my way because i did not dare

      to desecrate the name i did not bear

      nor don a uniform i dare not wear.

      Nothing but earth exists, and out of earth

      is born the squalor of your birth

      and all the looks they say you’re worth:

      your height, your ankle-depth, your girth.

      Nothing but earth doth constitute

      the link ‘twixt earage and lute,

      the carnage of a clay beirut,

      the shine of an old and damaged suit,

      The mellifluities of wine,

      the cackled call of ‘auld lang syne’,

      the madnesses of the benign,

      the dust within the flowing rhine,

      The architecture of a spire,

      the grandiose burning of a lyre,

      the nothingnesses of a choir,

      lost as darknesses draw nigher.

      All is earth, there’s nothing more:

      earth in foibles, earth in store,

      earth in pastness gone before,

      earth beneath the hearthwood floor,

      Earth as i look at the dark’ning night,

      earth where starriness seems blight

      against the blackness’s delight,

      in being of earth and born of fright.

      2

      When everything is dark and forest-dull

      and into earth’s noisiness falls a lull

      that heralds the quick fingers of the pull

      of silence filling what was never full,

      Then does that silence grow like leaves

      on the ancient tree that man believes

      is shelter for a density that weaves

      destinies for which no goddess grieves

      Nor which the whiles do restlessly inspire

      storymen, tellers of lies that fire

      their listeners to think there is a higher

      person, to even greater falseness to aspire.

      Into this silent space that earth contains

      fall, as from gods, relentless rains

      that breed, on the drooping conifers,

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