He kept his peace for two long, troubled years.
Betrayed by others' words, he called a ban.
We may assume some greetings reached her ears
And made life slightly easier for Anne.
With family and friends there was no talk,
No sailor's curses as their money bled.
Behind stockades of silences he read,
And watched his second daughter learn to walk.
Eventually these desert days bore fruit:
It's here his cosmic syntax has its root.
Conceptions formed like crystals grown in space
Because he ditched the chattered commonplace.
New geometries developed in his head
As geodesics linked both hemispheres.
© Paul Taylor 2001