On Kandinsky, Composition 8, by Donna Beckage

Composition Vlll, by Wassily Kandinsky (Russia) 1923

On Kandinsky, Composition 8 (1923)
 
The softness of newborn planets
Emerging from chaos,
Some half-formed and empty,
Others full, glowing, giving birth.
Circularity asserts itself.
 
Soon angles and lines arrive,
Striving to impose grids
On the curves of orbs,
To lock in directionality,
Suppress the spontaneity
Of nascent worlds.
 
Fear of infinity is strong.

Donna Beckage

Donna Beckage lives in Los Angeles and works at the Getty Research Institute.  She holds degrees in comparative literature from the University of California, Riverside, and wrote a dissertation on representations of Beethoven and his music in literary works. In 1996 she was a contestant on Jeopardy! and won a portable hot tub large enough for six.