{"id":58529,"date":"2026-02-09T22:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T03:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/?p=58529"},"modified":"2026-02-10T09:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T14:46:09","slug":"the-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/poetry\/the-point\/","title":{"rendered":"The Point"},"content":{"rendered":"<script>\nfunction showWarning_enUS() {\n    var content_warning_list = document.getElementById(\"content-warning-enUS\");\n\n    if (content_warning_list.style.display === \"none\") {\n        content_warning_list.style.display = \"block\";\n    } else {\n        content_warning_list.style.display = \"none\";\n    }\n}\n<\/script><div lang=\"en-US\" dir=\"ltr\" class=\"content-warning-container-ltr\"><p><strong class=\"content-warning-title\">Content warning:<\/strong><br\/><button onclick=\"showWarning_enUS()\">Show warnings<\/button><\/p><div class=\"content-warning\" id=\"content-warning-enUS\" style=\"display: none;\" ><p>This page contains: <\/p><ul><li>Sex<\/li><\/ul><\/div><br\/><\/div>\n<p>The point became a line.<\/p>\n<p>The line, a triangle.<br \/>\nThe simplest shape.<\/p>\n<p>The triangles bred and twisted,<br \/>\nreplicating themselves.<br \/>\nLayering, one on top of the other.<\/p>\n<p>Spinning and spilling over,<br \/>\nThey drew into themselves the spaces between<br \/>\nencountering, to their surprise,<br \/>\ncircles<br \/>\nwho dreamt of spinning spheres.<\/p>\n<p>The two strangers fought,<br \/>\nbut decided the better of it,<br \/>\nand instead, grew enamored.<\/p>\n<p>Interbred.<br \/>\nInterlocked.<br \/>\nSweating hands grasped in mutual, moaning ecstasy.<\/p>\n<p>Sharing secrets immemorial:<br \/>\nthe mysteries of angles,<br \/>\nthe enigmas of Pi.<\/p>\n<p>To create square and ellipse.<br \/>\nHexagon, sphere, and cone.<br \/>\nParabola and hyperbola,<br \/>\nChladni figure and Gabriel\u2019s horn.<br \/>\nCassini\u2019s oval and torus\u2019s knot.<\/p>\n<p>Together,<br \/>\nthey forged new realities,<br \/>\nbecoming all that is:<\/p>\n<p>All shapes, asymmetric and isotropic.<br \/>\nAll sounds, harmonic and dissonant.<br \/>\nAll numbers, real and imaginary.<br \/>\nAll beings, fantastic and factual.<br \/>\nAll thoughts, fleeting and terminal.<\/p>\n<p>And all those things we mistake for the living\u2014<br \/>\nand for the dead.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>[Editor\u2019s Note: The publication of this poem was made possible by a donation from John Klima during our annual Kickstarter.]<\/em><\/p>\n<br class=\"clear_both\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The triangles bred and twisted, replicating themselves. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[730],"class_list":["post-58529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-no-content-warning"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p82q22-fe1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58529"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58586,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58529\/revisions\/58586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}