Beacon

A small period-2 oscillator in the game of life. It looks like two blocks diagonally adjacent, but the adjacent cells are unstable and die, but then in the next generation, the wonderful restorative properties of the block regrow the missing cells.

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It seems to me I wander
Aimless, pointless
Drifting where the tide takes me away
Knowing that there has to be
A reason out there waiting,
Waiting for me to find it, some day

And when I touch someone
I can almost reach it
Spiralling deeper into the night
It’s hidden like a treasure
In some woman's kisses
Held captive in her arms, my light

Searching within their faces
Always hoping
Gazing into their warmth, their flame
I know that I will find it
If I keep on looking
And it will guide me home safe again

Beacon

Lethargy-recollections strobe
in the arteries of a mute.
Someone whispers
secrets of what these may be:
Embezzled dreams
from when dark was different.
The embrace of a slugger. A hand here
a hand there. Tadadum.
Crystalline visions of blurry,
contact-less contacts. Theater
in the wits, my fellers... and
Napalm in the trunk.

Days come along, with
a rationale to Disavow songs,
recant words. They hold illicit Contemplation,
Droplet-hanging from Minds that
Smart not so much from dagger-wounds
as from the sting of rotten roses.

A thirst that will kill the urge to drink
But not drain enough to sanction sleep.
at least
not in the mornings,
Ridiculously luminous. Tadadum.

(Written May 12, 2001)

Bea"con (?), n. [OE. bekene, AS. be�xa0;cen, bcen; akin to OS. bkan, Fries. baken, beken, sign, signal, D. baak, OHG. bouhhan, G. bake; of unknown origin. Cf. Beckon.]

1.

A signal fire to notify of the approach of an enemy, or to give any notice, commonly of warning.

No flaming beacons cast their blaze afar. Gay.

2.

A signal or conspicuous mark erected on an eminence near the shore, or moored in shoal water, as a guide to mariners.

3.

A high hill near the shore.

[Prov. Eng.]

4.

That which gives notice of danger.

Modest doubt is called The beacon of the wise. Shak.

Beacon fire, a signal fire.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Bea"con, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Beaconed (); p. pr. & vb. n. Beaconing.]

1.

To give light to, as a beacon; to light up; to illumine.

That beacons the darkness of heaven. Campbell.

2.

To furnish with a beacon or beacons.

 

© Webster 1913.