Ideas That Actually Generate New Ideas

The characteristica universalis
Of Leibniz is real, if not quite so cohesive

As he dreamed of—the language of all thought goes on,
Endlessly exfoliating syntax and terms,

Whether mathematical, metaphysical,
Archival, or nothing but ordinary speech.

No single analogy will do, no charades,
No deoxyribonucleic acid pairs,

No zeroes and ones—it’s all of them and then some,
All the likenesses it can cook up for itself.

It has machines within it. It is like machines.
It is like more than machines. It is what it means.