swifts  &  s l o w s · a quarterly of crisscrossings

a leap of imagination
Mark A. Murphy

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Value and Ideology

So far no chemist has ever discovered exchange value
either in a pearl or a diamond.
Karl Marx

i

What is an idea that pits value against man (in a war
of all against all) like betting on terriers
in a rat pit. What is an idea that seeks freedom,

rather than habituation like a dove making a jailbreak
from its gilded cage. What is an idea that rejects
the dam like a river that carves its own path

through mountains, a tree growing up in concrete,
or a marsh marigold fighting its way to the sun
through the mud. Transforming obstacle and setback

into stepping stones of seed to nurture and root.

ii

If all ideas have a social genesis,
when does an idea become ideological
like a hedge that grows into a maze.
When do rising prices
in a tree nursery prevail over purpose
like wild fire that consumes
the forest but leaves the dead
under brush behind. When do electricity
or electric motor convert value
in the human world
like a spark igniting an uprising.

At what point does a rose
take on social function like a diamond
in an eternity ring.

iii

What is purpose outside of exchange,
except a leap of imagination,
where knowledge of the rose
and desire to bestow it

become identical – ridding itself
of all artifice like a sunrise
illuminating bog and heather
as it reveals the red grouse
in all its complexity of nesting
and feeding.

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Mark A. Murphy is a self-educated, neurodivergent writer from a working class background. He is currently working on his new collection: ‘The Importance of Being Helene Demuth.’