Mind is Panopticon

Matthew Oldridge
2 min readNov 13, 2023

**A poem a day project, poem 2**

“Panopticon of the Mind With One Person Inside”. Oldridge x Dall-E

One is in the Panopticon, where all things are seen, from all sides, at all times.

  • one is in despair
  • one sees into another-vicarious instant
  • one has writer’s block
  • one leaps, one falls
  • one-
  1. 1.

1.

The all-knowing eye on all sides of the panopticon takes in information from inside the panopticon walls. Reflections of one reality in the all-seeing eye. The eye/I has known me, will know me.

  • it won’t let me, you won’t let me.
  • stock market in real-time ticker
  • a meal on a tin plate, lukewarm water speckled with dust
  • remains of a robe, a black cloak, tattered, moth-ridden
  • 13 rats that hide in corners, away from the spotlight light beam

One remembers a lighthouse, craggy shores and rocky skree-

and seagulls-skree skree skree. One remembers driftwood & debris washing to shore. One remembers the stairs twisting to the top & halogen bulb guiding ship to shore, shore to ship.

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Matthew Oldridge
Matthew Oldridge

Written by Matthew Oldridge

Writing about creativity, books, productivity, education, particularly mathematics, music, and whatever else “catches my mind”. ~Thinking about things~