A coat of ashes A collection of poems, incorporating a metafictional narrative and Poetry, Daoism, physics and systems theory: a poetics A set of critical essays This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Janet Ruth Jackson Edith Cowan University School of Arts and Humanities 2018 Abstract This thesis comprises a book-length creative work accompanied by a set of essays. It explores how poetry might bring together spiritual and scientific discourses, focusing primarily on philosophical Daoism (Taoism) and contemporary physics. Systems theory (the science of complex and self-organising systems) is a secondary focus of the creative work and is used metaphorically in theorising the writing process. The creative work, “A coat of ashes”, is chiefly concerned with the nature of being. It asks, “What is?”, “What am I?” and, most urgently, “What matters?”. To engage with these questions, it opens a space in which voices expressing scientific and spiritual worldviews may be heard on equal terms. “A coat of ashes” contributes a substantial number of poems to the small corpus of Daoist-influenced poetry in English and adds to the larger corpus of poetry engaging with the sciences. The poems are offset by a metafictional narrative, “The Dream”, which may be read as an allegory of the writing journey and the struggle to combine discourses. The four essays articulate the poetics of “A coat of ashes” by addressing its context, themes, influences, methodology and compositional processes. They contribute to both literary criticism and writing theory. Like the creative work, they focus on dialogues between rationalist or scientific discourses and subjective or spiritual ones. The first essay, “An introduction”, discusses the thesis itself: its rationale, background, components, limitations and implications. The second, “Singing the quantum”, reviews scholarship discussing the influence of physics on poetry, then examines figurative representations of physics concepts in selected poems by Rebecca Elson, Cilla McQueen and Frederick Seidel. These poems illustrate how contemporary poetry can interpret scientific concepts in terms of subjective human concerns. The third essay, “Let the song be bare”, discusses existing Daoist poetry criticism before considering Daoist influences in the poetry of Ursula K. Le Guin, Randolph Stow and Judith Wright. These non-Indigenous poets with a strong awareness of the sciences have, by adopting Daoist-inflected senses of the sacred, been able to articulate the tension engendered by their problematic relationships with colonised landscapes. Moreover, the changing aesthetic of Wright’s later poetry reflects a struggle between Daoist quietism and European lyric commentary. iii The final essay, “Animating the ash”, reflects on the process of writing poetry, using examples from “A coat of ashes” to construct a theoretical synthesis based on Daoism, systems theory and contemporary poetics. It proposes a novel way to characterise the nature and emergence of the hard-to-define quality that makes a poem a poem. This essay also discusses some of the Daoist and scientific motifs that occur in the creative work. As a whole, this project highlights the potential of both the sciences and the more ancient ways of knowing — when seen in each other’s light — to help us apprehend the world’s material and metaphysical nature and live harmoniously within it. Keywords: poetry, creative writing, writing experiments, complexity and poetry, emergence and poetry, Daoism and poetry, physics and poetry, science and poetry, literature and science, English literature, Australian poetry, American poetry, British poetry, New Zealand poetry, twentieth-century poetry, Rebecca Elson, Cilla McQueen, Frederick Seidel, Ursula K. Le Guin, Randolph Stow, Judith Wright iv Declaration I certify that this thesis does not, to the best of my knowledge and belief: i. incorporate without acknowledgment any material previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any institution of higher education; ii. contain any material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the text of this thesis; or iii. contain any defamatory material. Janet Ruth Jackson 27 September 2018 v Acknowledgements Thank you to my supervisors, Drs Marcella Polain and Ffion Murphy, for their time and support, and for many helpful comments. Thank you also to the anonymous peer reviewers of the Journal of Literature and Science for their feedback on an earlier version of “Singing the quantum”, and to those of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs’ 2016 conference for comments on my early theoretical ideas. Reasonable attempts have been made to obtain permission for all reprinted material that might not be covered by the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright Act (Australia). Permissions have been obtained to reprint in full, in the thesis, the following poems. “Pop Song” from anti gravity by Cilla McQueen. Copyright © 1984 Cilla McQueen. Reprinted by permission of the author. “The Last Animists” from A Responsibility to Awe by Rebecca Elson. Copyright © 2001 Estate of Rebecca Elson. Reprinted by arrangement with Carcanet Press Limited. Permissions have been obtained to reprint, in the published book of poems, the following excerpts. Excerpt from Closer to Now by Kevin Gillam. Copyright © 2009 Kevin Gillam. Reprinted by permission of the author. Selections from “Cutting Up an Ox” By Thomas Merton, from The Way of Chuang Tzu, copyright © 1965 by The Abbey of Gethsemani. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. Excerpt from Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching: A New English Version, by Ursula K. Le Guin. Copyright © 1997 by Ursula K. Le Guin. Reprinted by arrangement with The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Shambhala Publications Inc., Boulder, Colorado, www.shambhala.com. Excerpts from Late in the Day by Ursula K. Le Guin. Copyright © 2016 Ursula K. Le Guin. Reprinted by permission of the author. vii Excerpts from Tao Te Ching, translated by Stephen Addiss & Stanley Lombardo. Copyright © 1993 Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. Selections from The Drunken Elk by Shane McCauley. Copyright © 2010 Shane McCauley. Reprinted by permission of the author. Excerpt from The Land’s Meaning by Randolph Stow. Copyright © 2012 The Estate of Randolph Stow. Reprinted by arrangement with Fremantle Press. Poems from this thesis have appeared in Axon, The Canberra Times, Cordite, foam:e, The High Window, LiNq, Meniscus, Poetry Matters, Tamba, Uneven Floor, Writ Poetry Review, and The Authorised Theft: Writing, Scholarship, Collaboration Papers — the Refereed Proceedings of the 21st Conference of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs. An earlier version of “Let the song be bare” entitled “Jackson on Daoism and the poetry of Randolph Stow, Judith Wright and Ursula K. Le Guin” was published in The High Window, Issue 7, April 2017. This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. viii Contents A coat of ashes .............................................................................................................................. 1 The centre ................................................................................................................................. 3 One, two, three .......................................................................................................................... 6 The silicon lip of the precipice ................................................................................................. 8 it happened ................................................................................................................................ 9 The light .................................................................................................................................. 11 skinvisible ............................................................................................................................... 14 On eating shepherd’s pie from a plastic takeaway box .......................................................... 16 between ................................................................................................................................... 18 The other way, the long way................................................................................................... 19 lamps ....................................................................................................................................... 21 That ......................................................................................................................................... 22 The Dream .............................................................................................................................. 23 [ ] ........................................................................................................................................ 44 The Millennium Simulation .................................................................................................... 45 between the bones of my temples ........................................................................................... 47 Wake ....................................................................................................................................... 49 A coat of ashes .......................................................................................................................