The booklet of science

The orbit of the comet is perturbed in passing by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
A president is murdered; a war is lost; millions die of famine, hurricane, tsunami.
You are inspired by the music of a rock band; a loved one dies; you write a book.

Gas discharges

Saint Elmo’s fire,
mercury gas lit by static,
Geissler and Crookes tubes,
Geiger counters,
fluorescent lamps, neon,
metal halide, mercury vapor,
deuterium arc, xenon arc,
sodium, and plasma lamps.

Spiritual blue

The Jewish people made the blue dye tekhelet
from secretions of the snail Hexaplex trunculus.
They say it was the color of the pure sky at noon, the color
of the sea, or maybe the color of the sky in moonlight.
It’s hard to know exactly what color it was,
but it is written that it was like the throne of glory
and it was difficult to obtain, especially after
they lost their knowledge of how to make it.

Recalibration

Fahrenheit chose ninety six for body temperature
to improve the simplicity of his scale.
He started with Ole Rømer’s scale,
but he didn’t like that water freezes at 7.5 °Rø
or that body temperature is 22.5 °Rø.
He multiplied Rømer’s degree by four,
separating the freezing and boiling points by sixty degrees,
but he wanted a difference of sixty four
to make it easy to mark out the degrees
using a compass to bisect the distances,
so freezing became thirty two
and body temperature became ninety six.
Today the Fahrenheit scale
is defined in reference to the Celsius scale,
which is calibrated by any two of sixteen
reference points—the vapor point of helium,
the melting point of gallium,
the triple or freezing points of various elements,
and the triple point of Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water.
Water freezes at 0 °C or 32 °F,
and boils at 100 °C or 212 °F.
Today the United States
is the only English-speaking country
for whom the majority of citizens
a balmy temperature of 25 °C doesn’t signify.

Aberration of sight

My brain fills in
for my blind spot.
Two faces become
a candlestick.
A distant lake
disappears as I approach.
A mote flies in my eye.
I blink and then
it isn’t there.

Imitators

You have not made a Réaumur scale
by using a bulb of mercury and measuring
eighty degrees to the boiling point of water,
which apparently some have claimed to do.

2400 or more graduations

So many degrees, each divided into fine graduations,
2400 or 2700 of them, with absolute zero at 559.73 °De;
however, no word as to what kind of water should be used
or what the barometric pressure, which varies with the weather.

Lost science

A discovery can benefit no one unless put to use;
it must be shared, taught, and adopted.
It took fifty years for George Hadley’s paper
to be rediscovered by John Dalton.
Georg Ohm discovered Olm’s law
forty-six years after Henry Cavendish discovered it,
which James Clerk Maxwell discovered
another fifty-two years after Ohm.
I invented a means
of harvesting energy
from ambient electromagnetic waves
and told only a few friends
years before others showed it could be done.
I and
a thousand others.

Completeness

After centuries of trying
we are still discovering and naming new species.
The number of atoms in the universe
is not known.
Most of the universe
is unreachable.
Even the kind old man next door
might die before he can be saved.
Many creatures have died
before they could be discovered
and many that have died
will never be discovered.
There are many things
that I would like to do in my life
that I have not yet done—
some because I cannot
some because I have been afraid to try
some for lack of time
(a lame excuse or a work in progress)
some for lack of freedom
that I fail to give myself
some because the opportunity passed
and could pass again
some because there never was an opportunity
and never will be—
for loved ones who will not change
for loved ones who have died
and some because of loving others
as they have needed to be loved.

Identity

In the physical world
anything that occupies space
and is relatively stable is an object.
In the logical world
anything that has its own identity is an object.
It doesn’t need to be stable.
If I have written about this before,
then there’s a small chance
that this is exactly the same poem.

Shape

I’m out of shape,
not bent out of shape,
by bending the rules.
I’m working things out
without working out,
and it’s working out.

Cutting through to the essence

Bernoulli’s principle, stated for an ideal fluid—
with no viscosity, no drag, and no compressibility,
is true enough to help with understanding,
true enough to lift an airplane
even though all kinds of odd things happen
as air swirls past.

Meta engines

Instead of marking gradations on each instrument manually,
Henry Hindley made a dividing engine.
Instead of writing another compiler,
Stephen C. Johnson wrote yet another compiler compiler.

Arbitrary decisions

The scales of de Réaumur and Celsius
went backward, where the temperature got smaller
as things got hotter.
Having a decision
can be more important
than what the decision is.
It would be good if we
were all on the same wavelength;
however, things can be arbitrary and people
do not like to change frequency.
“To an arbitrary degree” has
a sound that rings true, somewhat
like our weather forecasts. Someone
may be experiencing 20 °C nearby;
however, where we sit, the air is balmy.

Saved for eternity

Someone thought it was worth documenting
before the language was lost
before the way of life disappeared
leaving us with an emotional attachment
to a few facts and images of
a landscape we will never live in.
It seems so far away, so long ago,
if we’ve forgotten, we need to be reminded
they were almost entirely the same as us.

Shock

Von Kleist and van Musschenbroek’s assistant
were both shocked to discover
how much electricity their Leyden jars discharged.

Electronic addiction

Users addicted to electronics
argue electronics are good for them.
There was a time when mankind
could not control electrons.
It would be foolish to argue
lives were better then,
and it would be foolish to argue
we have no more to learn.

Cognitive dissonance

Maybe your eyes have deceived you;
maybe you’re a little confused.
If belief is supported by sufficient fact,
then how is it different from knowlege?

Wasted

Wasted time,
wasted love,
every sparrow that falls
is precious
as is
a contemplative moment,
a walk in the woods,
a lesson learned.

Erratic skittering

Like a hat on a cotton roof
(tipped to honor Tennessee Williams)
Like a cat who won’t be put in a cage
(writhes like a mythical demon)
Like bobbing for apples too big to bite
(someone else’s idea of a joke)
Like a narcissist who cannot admit a mistake
(self-infallability is more than papal)
Like a child who won’t confess a meanness
(of whom scrutiny is worse than his sin)

Static

Benjamin Franklin and Henry Cavendish did just fine
with only static electricity to experiment with.
We receive radio static driving miles and miles
from the stations’ broadcast towers.
The energy of a group that does what it does because
it has always done it will eventually drain completely away.
Touch ground before handling electronic parts.
A stray spark can fry their delicate components.
If lovers describe their attraction as “electricity,”
are their charges static and opposite?

Eyes

Your eyes, my dear,
are jewelled spheres;
each has a χ of two.
Your eyes of blue,
between us two,
reflect the sky
with its χ of two
together here.

A metal

conducts heat
and electricity
and expands
when heated
expands
softens
fuses
melts
ferromagnetic
paramagnetic
malleable or brittle
base or precious.
It makes a pretty penny,
a bauble for a beauty,
a plate of pewter,
a can of corn,
a tower of steel,
a cable that hangs a bridge,
a wire that connects the world,
a ring that symbolizes oneness.

Latent stuff

Latent energy
Latent sexuality
Latent emotion
Latent ability to please
Latent sense of humor
Latent desire for a pony
Something latent
in the eye of the beholder
who hasn’t yet beheld
Something latent
in the ancient ediface
a restoration could reveal
A latent case
of tuberculosis
that hasn’t caused a cough
I had always wanted
to use the word endothermic
or something like it
A drunk evening lay
in the amber liquid
lying in the glass

Training

Something funny about the human brain,
might be a throwback to an evolutionary stage
or a limitation of the structure of its synapses,
but it needs training from early childhood,
socializing experiences, help from loved ones,
continuing stimulation, and constant reminders.

Miracles

Seems like miracles
strangely inhabiting
everything around us.
Unidentified energies
silently empower
impossible creatures
too numerous to count.
Imagination generates reasons
out of fears.
Reason generates causes
out of hopes.
Surprise generates miracles
when we cannot see the causes.
We can’t explain these things.
If this were pure luck, good or bad,
it would be time to count our blessings.

Heat engines

A steam engine is a heat engine.
It converts heat into mechanical energy
like an internal combustion engine
or the earth’s atmosphere and hydrosphere.
It would be tempting to say that life itself
is also a heat engine, and many have argued
one way or the other, which boils down to whether
living things have free will or are merely
driven by things they can’t control.
I imagine Samuel Johnson arguing the matter
by kicking a stone across a cobblestone street
and asking, “Do I bounce like a stone?”

Squaring the circle

The eye encompasses the obvious only
and often is mistaken.
Then the mind follows, convinced it should believe
what it has seen.
It doesn’t matter how hard we try
to turn a base metal into gold
to build a perpetual motion machine
or to square the circle,
human effort cannot controvert
the intricate and subtle
nature of our physical universe.
Seldom, if ever, do we exactly
hit the mark.
It doesn’t matter how difficult
this is to accept.

Gordian Knot

To untangle a mess of yarn,
it is not permissible to cut it.
However, one reason
problems remain unsolved
and poems remain unwritten
is a desire to obey the rules.

Hydraulic thump

Water rushes
down the pipe and THUMP
past the check valve and up toward the attic of the house.
Before electricity
came to the farm and THUMP
water users had to make clever use of gravity.

Nothing from nothing

Odysseus told Polyphemus the Cyclopes
his name was “Nobody.”
When the Cyclopes’ asked
whether Nobody was there, nobody answered.
If nothing comes from nothing,
then something must have been always there, hiding.

No energy expended

A pyrolytic carbon wafer floats
above a permanent ferromagnet
with no expenditure of energy,
which makes me wonder. Have I,
all these years, have I been lazy, blind,
and passed over the unexpected?
.

The impermanence of war

It took many years to see
whether the Mysoreans or the British
had the strongest forces.
The Mysorean cushoons
launched thousands of rockets,
but on the long side of history
what has survived?
When you shoot off a rocket
and it explodes, that’s it.
Whereas things worth defending
could offer a different way
to passify the enemy.

Hidden

If I cannot peer
with a better instrument
which for a better reason
I cannot find
then bless my intuition
which seems to be blunted
before it can cut.

Workable degrees

I’m with Goldilocks;
too hot is too hot;
whatever feels right
is, I say, peachy;
and if it’s cold as ice
it’s surely not nice.

Spark of being

Only a spark distinguishes
the constituents of life
from simple living things.
Separating by analysis
the conjunction of simple parts
identifies the missing element.
To separate nitrogen
from nitrogen
Cavendish used a simple spark.
To give her monster life
Mary Shelley
prescribed “a spark of being.”

Eye splice

A sailor makes an eye splice
by unraveling the end of a multi-strand rope,
looping the unraveled part
so that the eye has the desired size
and the unraveled strands come back
to the standing part of the rope,
loosening the stands of the standing part,
and weaving the unravelled strands into it
so that the left-twisting strands
are fed below left-twisting strands,
and right-twisting strands
below the right-twisting strands.
At its best, an eye splice
is a permant loop whose strength
approaches the rope’s strength.
To splice rope into a circle,
called a grog splice,
take a section of rope,
unravel both ends
and weave them together.

Endless cycles

The human mind generally fails to accept
the infinite material universe,
but must imagine its beginning and end.
Yet James Hutton concluded
“that we find no vestige of a beginning
—no prospect of an end.”

Analogies

Analogous to Isaac Newton’s law
of universal gravitation
is Coulomb’s law
of electrostatic attraction and repulsion,
which can be used to derive Gauss’s law
for electric fields,
which is analogous to Ampère’s circuital law
for magnetic fields,
which reminds me of the analogy
between atoms and solar systems.
Natural laws are only analogies
for conditions in the real world
but we are creatures of analogy;
all our experiences are analogies.

Moving the dial

You indicate an interest
when your experience
pushes against what you know.
Your sense of the situation
matches instinctual patterns,
pulling you into a dance.
A small number of basic faces
are behind many masks.
Moving toward the impulse
enforces your confidence.
What you know is a record
of when you were not thwarted
and when you fought it.

Terms

The smallpox virus is called variola
so innoculation with smallpox
was called variolation.
Variola is derived from the Latin
varius meaning “spotted”
or varus meaning “pimple.”
The Latin for “cow” is vacca,
so Edward Jenner
coined the term vaccination,
which now refers to the method
of administering an antigen
to induce an immunity.

Transforms

Laplace taught
that an equation expressing a function of time
can be transformed to express
a function of complex angular frequency
to simplify the analysis of a system.
If the blank page seems inviolatable, then,
listening to your thoughts,
begin at the upper left
and write them down as quickly as you can
without stopping for any reason.
If finding a creative solution doesn’t seem likely
then change the problem;
change the assignment;
change your mind;
change your life.

Only bones

If a bone were sticking out of the skin of your arm
my diagnosis would be clear,
but if the same broken bone were dug up in my yard by a dog
I wouldn’t know if it were human.
The Sami people have hundreds of words for snow.
An educated person has similar useful refinements.
You would be surprised by the number of useless things
I have learned working for the phone company for thirty years.
Only a great deal of back-story could put flesh on those bones
and the value of the endeavor would not be clear.

Belief

I believe
what I need to believe
and what I refuse to question.
I believe what I know to be true
and what I accept from others.
I know I make mistakes
and my beliefs might be mistaken,
but in believing I do not doubt
and believe in my believing.
Belief in an empirical or scientific fact
is no different from belief in spirits.
I evaluate it in terms of my beliefs
and either accept it or reject it.

Overpopulation

Assuming people continue to act as they have acted
our population on this planet would continue to grow.
Assuming science and agriculture
could keep ahead of our needs
if only distribution were equitable
although we know distribution is never equitable,
then we will not need to practice genocide or infanticide
or watch others cruelly suffer
or eat each other;
however, we may need to continue to ignore
evidence of inhumanity and ignorance
leading to misery and evil
as our best efforts to help
continue to fall short.

Sequence of results

Given the weight and dimensions of the torsion balance,
the oscillation-period of the balance rod,
the distance between his roating and his fixed spheres,
the deflection of the torsion balance
(with tenths read from the secondary scale),
the weights of his spheres,
the radius of the earth,
one can solve a system of so many variables
given so many independent relations between them.
Otherwise, there is much we do not know.

Humboldt County

After work each day, as the sun began to set,
I would jump the fence, run across the highway,
and scramble down the bank and over the railroad tracks
to sit on the side of a rusted box car
tumbled into the river to protect the tracks.
The river would flow quietly in its wide gravel bed.
A small cool breeze would drift up the river.
A great heron would stalk along the opposite bank.
A kingfisher would cry, dart, and perch upon a stump.
The sun would set and bats would flit into the darkness.

Remote control

Without the frog
muscles can still be made to twitch
and pistols can still be fired
from the other end of a wire.
Soon enough, performances and sports events
would be created for only remote viewers
who would be given only token control.

Think positive!

At our bus stop my friend would
put his finger in the air and say
“Think positive!” and then
our bus would come on time.
Jogging, yoga, meditation,
fortune telling, whatever
rocks your boat, but then
don’t you wonder what it is?
Are people happy because
they’re lucky? want it? deserve it?
work hard? walk on the sunny side?
or take the pill, bitter or sweet?

What is space?

A cloud of virtual particles
surround an electron
forming a perfect sphere.
The vacuum around that sphere
and around stars and planets
is characterized
by random creation and destruction
of virtual particles.
Einstein taught
that both light and time slow down
in the presence of mass
—bending space itself.
If space had no substance,
how could gravity bend it?
What the heck is it . . .
other than a name we call
inherently nothing?

Ceres

Too faint
to be seen
with the naked eye
Ceres, named after
the goddess of grain, harvest, and motherly love,
spins beautifully like a jewel
impervious to the penetrating thoughts of remote observers.

Idea!

A real idea
not just a better mousetrap
is a light bulb drawn over a head
with eyes looking up!

Practical problems

The main trouble was the darned metal got soft.
Also, like Wedgwood’s scale, it could be calibrated
only at low temperatures. Well,
practical problems typically accompany any attempt
to venture into an unexplored space.
One reason for ignorance—it ain’t easy, even though
the promise of knowledge leads many to risk failure.

Some cycles

Sunlight, ATP.
Citric-acid, ATP.
Liquify, vaporize.
Condense, expand.
Inhale, exhale.
Carbon cycle
Oxygen cycle
Hydrogen cycle
Water cycle
Iron cycle
Citric acid cycle
Lytic cycle
Lysogenic cycle
Cell cycle
Urea cycle
Lunar cycle
Solar cycle
Climate cycle
Cycle of the seasons
Hampson-Linde cycle

Obscure iron artifacts of the nineteenth century

Some of the finest eggs that Fabergé made
were made of iron, lighter than gold!
The first man-made hummingbird that could fly
was fashioned of sixteenth-inch plate iron.
The more durable pirate peg legs were iron,
but were heavily oiled to keep from rusting.
The first cast-iron computers were installed
in Captain Nemo’s Nautilus.
Iron, the most common element on earth,
was used not only for nails, swords, and chains.
Wrought and cast iron were the plastics
of the nineteenth century,
used for everything from pens and toothpicks
to the stays of ladies’ corsets.
What iron works of the time couldn’t make from iron
was hardly worth writing about.

Symbols

If an atom cannot be destroyed,
then these are not atoms—
lives, families,
languages, tribes,
happiness, peace of mind,
faith, belief, hope.
If I were to symbolize my love with a plus-sign
and put that sign in a circle,
then I would be trying to say
my love cannot be destroyed.

Besoin

The need of the giraffe
to graze on leaves at the tops of trees
gradually created its long neck.
The need of the rabbit to hop
gradually developed its bigger haunches.
The need of the hawk to eat the rabbit
gradually grew its fast wings and sharp claws.
The need of the socialite to snub her inferiors
gradually turned up the noses
of her well-off offspring.
Over time, these things have improved our world
to where we now live
more satisfied and more sophisticated.

Macro and micro

The Avogadro constant
is the scaling factor
between the atomic scale
and the scale in which
we appreciate things
made of atoms.
*
O portal to the Hidden World,
Thru your glorious Lens
We see the invisibly Small!

Cheese scale

“How can you govern a country that has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?” —Charles de Gaulle

A good science project
might be to evaluate
the relative hardness of cheeses.
Industry terms such as
“fresh soft” and “fresh firm”
“semi-soft” and “semi-hard”
are woefully unscientific.
Parmesan, cojita, and aged gouda
are harder than cheddar,
but how hard is dry jack?
Is cheddar harder than blue?
Is Swiss harder than Gruyère?
Is goat harder than sheep?
How does hardness
affect melting temperature?
Does Stilton have a standard hardness?
Does hardness correlate
with reduced moisture content?
And what about fat?
Many questions remain
and I won’t do the research
because I’m allergic to cheese.

Symbols

A symbol may represent anything,
but most symbols we see everyday
are mainly graphic mnemonics, because
one can often see a cockeyed correspondence.
The symbol at the men’s room wears pants;
well, so do women, and men wear skirts.
The symbols on a switch are O and |,
one of which means on, and the other off.
The Egyptians and the Mayan hieroglyphs were lost
even though they had been written in stone.

Spectral analysis

The humanist believes
each human being is unique
including human beings like me
—like each snowflake
—each piece of popcorn.
But convert those flakes or kernels to a gas
and get their spectral signatures—
anyone can see
they’re all the same.

Hidden sediments

Mounds in middle-eastern deserts
reveal layer under layer
of decomposed cities.
Rushing noisily
upon the face of this planet
our civilization
deposits its broken riches.
As I cross this city on a diesel bus
I think about what’s under the streets
under the electric, cable, water, gas
under the sewers and storm drains.
There lay the compressed layers
of pre-historic baylands
hillside runoff
ancient marine beds
broken pieces of extinct volcanos
resting in their quietnesses.

Hypothesis

In science, a plausible hypothesis
is enough to spur progress.
A useful error is admired
more than a lucky guess.
Would that the same be true
for buying and selling stocks.

Marital telegraph

First Spouse. “I’m taking the garbage out.”
[subtext] I’m trying to be a responsible adult.
Second Spouse. “What?”
[subtext] Why bother me with that?
First Spouse. [Points to the trash bin;
then points to the door.]
Second Spouse. “OK.”
[subtext] Thank you.

In the real world

An ideal Stirling engine
cannot be built.
Gases transfer heat too slowly
and losses occur.
*
Imperfect instruments
require compromises.
It takes a while
to figure things out.

Local variation

After your first drink, you feel lighter;
after your last drink, heavier.
Individual gravitas may differ.
In free-fall, you feel no gravity at all.
Between individuals, differences
are greater than between groups.
Trying harder may harden the effect.

Embryogenesis

The ovum and
the spermatozoon
produce the zygote,
which by cell division
produces the morula,
which is where
our story started,
though one must go back
a half billion years
to the first animals,
which produces a lot
of speculation.
Many restarts
but always
without planning.
Gradually,
the path became
convoluted,
a mind inside
a mind, a poem
inside a poem,
until the story
begins again
to tell itself.

Clear

X-rays penetrate skin;
radar cuts through fog or cloud;
radio through windows and walls.
Gravity seems like a force and a lens,
water seems like a force and a lens,
clear sky seems like a force and a lens.

The principles

The basic principles survive
and are reapplied
in unanticipated
contexts.
Augustin-Jean Fresnel created
an object of beauty
for which each lens facet,
each mount, each screw
was made by hand to amaze
for hundreds of years.

Secret agent

One person may have power
over another.
A conspiracy may control our lives
with patterns of radio pulses.
Aliens may have invisible means
to interpret our dreams
and control our desires.
Surely many of us cannot
control our own desires
and may believe ourselves susceptible
especially when we cannot admit to ourselves
the motives we wish to hide.
Naturally, we must be circumspect.
These very motives,
like the secret agent’s vice,
may put us under the power
of malicious forces,
forces that some may claim
will save the world.

Penetrations

Many waves pass through us
as though we were mostly air.
Millions of lost electrons fly like gnats
through the great spaces inside us.
Radio waves, microwaves,
shortwaves, longwaves,
leakage from generators,
transformers, power lines,
cathode rays, X-rays,
gamma rays, cosmic rays
penetrate us silently.
Space, or air, or seeming solidity,
is no impediment.
We cannot protect ourselves
against their irresistable forces.

Electric fluid

Henry Cavendish considered electricity
to be a liquid or elastic form of matter
whose particles repel each other
and are attracted to particles of ordinary matter
(which also repel each other).
Electric fluid is interspersed among all particles
of ordinary matter, and normally it exists
in a degree of saturation that balances
attractive and repulsive forces.
When a body has too little electric fluid,
it is undercharged, and when it has too much,
it is overcharged, so that the electric fluid
can move from overchanged to undercharged bodies.
When a body can conduct electricity,
Cavendish considered its electric fluid to be moveable.
And when a body can not conduct electricity,
Cavendish considered its electric fluid to be immoveable.

Not by accident

It couldn’t have been an accident,
a circuit tossed together
from parts left from other experiments.
I have friends who have said
nothing is accidental,
Unknowable past lives explain this one.
Sometimes things click
and then everything makes sense
and explanations fall into place.

Living systems

Ezra Pound studied Ernest Fenollosa’s notes
on the Chinese written language and proclaimed
All language is buried metaphor.
The Chineses character for ‘dawn’
is the sun rising over the top of a tree.
Our Roman letter ‘A’
derives from the Phoenician letter
itself derived from the Egyptian hieroglyph of an ox head.
Our verb ‘to be’
comes from the Sanscrit word ‘to breathe.’
Language is a game
and not merely a game.
Ultimately an idea is a thought
and a thought is the digestion of a set of conditions
and these conditions once affected our survival
as much as breathing, or eating,
or running after game.

Weaving

Ada Augusta King, Countess of Lovelace,
died at the age of thirty-six
but wrote
for Babbage’s Analytic Engine
(which was never built
but was the true precursor
to the modern general-purpose computer)
the first computer program
and she wrote that the engine
“weaves algebraic patterns.”

Liquefaction of water

It’s raining in Seattle.
These clouds were raised from the Pacific
and are blowing over us
toward a low-pressure zone near Omaha.
Great cummulus clouds move grandly
to reveal random patches of blue sky.
When I say “it’s raining,”
I mean that we see scattered wet spots.
Innumerable drops speckling windows, windshields,
yards, roofs, trees waving in a gentle breeze,
sidewalks, baseball caps, and bluejeans
evaporate and blow away.

Cooking with gas

Now we’re cooking,
all jazzed up,
hot to trot,
bursting with joy,
and ready to blast off.
We’re mixing it up.
No moss will grow
where we burn rubber.

Homunculi

Inside of me is the child
I somehow never have outgrown.
Inside that child
are my parents.
Inside my parents
are their childhood selves.
These all cause trouble
and bestow blessings
little tricks to bedevil
and little miracles to grace
the patterns I retrace.

Contiguity

Georg Ohm argued against “action at a distance.”
The electromagnetic force applied
across contiguous particles, he said.
By 1600 William Gilbert realized
electric attraction is not a disturbance of the air.
So one might ask, “Particles of what?”
A person’s senses are only so refined.
One cannot see, one cannot count, one cannot smell
each unknown particle impelling its neighbors.
And the force communicates across empty space
like light, whether it’s a wave or a stream of particles,
moving, faster than thought, at the speed of light.

Vital forces

Nothing special
about life in general
except that we in particular
share
it and a complexity
that cannot be explained
by chemical analysis.
Life could begin again
where chemicals meet by chance
with photons from the sun.
Achieving consciousness
could be a matter
of only time and degree.
Even those who think
a monkey has no soul
could in time agree.

Secondary qualities

What we perceive
as through a seive
reflects bio-specifics
more than physics.

Postulates

It is possible
to understand each other.
Like foreigners forced to learn
by trial and error
we point to a banana
and the man says “xorupeet.”
We indicate two parallel lines
and say “they never meet.”

Devolution

Charles Lyell wrote the book on geology
that Darwin read on his first voyage on the Beagle
but Lyell thought that Darwin was wrong
expecting to find fossils of modern life
even in the oldest sediments
or admitting that new forms have appeared
but not that they evolved from previous forms.
The record gradually revealed the truth
and Lyell became a proponent of evolution
even the evolution of humans
showing that science is not like religion;
a good scientist admits when he was wrong.

Change of flux

Photons travel and electrons spin,
bosons combine and fermions exclude,
matter has gravity to warp time and space,
and magnets cause actions at a distance.
The threatening man in the shadow
is invisible until he moves.
We ourselves are never part of the problem.
We have places to go, and things to do.

Regen

Atmospheric pressure and wind,
gravity and water,
generators convert natural kinetic energies
into electric forces
to charge my car’s batteries.
On the street, my car’s motor
converts electricity from the batteries
into kinetic energy—
zero to thirty-five
in ten seconds.
Then I release the accelerator
to turn the motor into a generator,
converting the car’s kinetic energy
back into electricity
that recharges the batteries.
AC to DC, DC to AC,
kinetic to electric, electric to kinetic,
alternating forms of energy
keep us moving, keep us happy,
though losses add up with every conversion.

Cymatics

I hope I can get on the record
saying this stuff is hokum, except to the extent
that it makes some people feel good,
and as long as it causes no harm,
directly or indirectly.
People think they can believe
anything they want.
They think facts and truth don’t matter
with respect to faith.
Well, I hope I can get on the record,
saying this stuff is sounds nice
and it sounds beneficial,
but in fact it’s delusional.
It’s a lot like a sugar pill.

“Poetist”

Karel Teige decided in 1924 that we needed a new art
to provide relief from the sterile logic of the modern world.
This new art would be the art of being alive and living well,
an irrational freedom of love, abundance, and happiness.
*
Another goal would be to embue the modern world
with all the meaning it can hold, and then some.
Modern poetry should shine a light on industry and science
and show its meaningful forms, its many shades and colors.

>Other bridges

Carey Foster bridge, to measure low resistances.
Kelvin bridge, to measure four-terminal resistances.
Maxwell bridge. to measure inductances.
Diode bridge, also known as Graetz bridge,
doesn’t measure anything.
Tower Bridge, not the real London Bridge.
Brooklyn Bridge, made famous by Hart Crane and not for sale.
Tacoma Narrows Bridge, originally known as Galloping Gertie.
Golden Gate Bridge
whose cables contain 27,572 wires.

Myth

Anatomically modern humans
lived and died beside extinct mammals
well before the stories in Genesis.
What kind of myth is this
excavated from the floors of caves?
Obviously, these people could not have been
as smart as we are today.

Periodic

Quite a few elements had yet to be discovered.
Some had been suspected from lines in spectrograms.
Some have been recognized as a common component of various alloys.
Standard chemical analytic techniques continued to fail.
Scientists continued to try different solutions.
Eventually, all the gaps were filled in.
But rejoice! everything is not already known!

Solid-state effects

The transistor was invented
five years before I was born
followed by the transistor radio when I was two.
I found out about solid-state heating and cooling
and solid-state generation of electricity
when I was in the ninth grade.
I had read a lot of science fiction.
Solid-state effects revealed new dimensions.
Secretly it seemed as though
a nine-volt battery could open an invisible world
to benefit mankind.
The next step should have been
antigravity devices, curing cancer,
and ending war.
The mind can transcend the mediocre and destructive
to span the universe
but not without corresponding effects.

Going

I have the spring and clockwork
of a four-wheeled toy that I wind up,
set on the floor, and let go—
instant joy, simple as going.
But when a good friend dies,
it’s hard not to refuse
the pleasures of this world—
too fragile, too temporary.

Waste

A gold miner doesn’t try to sell
his empty veins, his crunched quartz,
his heaps of worthless slag.
When all is said and done,
the wasted time and energy
won’t matter in the least.
Or will it? Wouldn’t it show cause?
Human effort? A struggle to do better?
Don’t we learn anything from failures?

Unhandy

If I don’t think carefully first,
left and right come out at random, it seems,
even though I know which direction to turn.
But thinking isn’t easy,
nor is it easy to remember to think.
I often need to think first about needing to.

Equilibrium in flux

Any force induces
an opposite force
to neutralize
the threat.
Like a child who hears
but won’t listen,
who says OK
but won’t obey,
a pewter shell
protects the soul.

A place in the universe

We teach that the universe is infinite
because whatever we might imagine beyond it
is also part of it.
Love is forever, we say.
We may not understand each other here and now
but we hope to live in harmony hereafter.
At least forty-six billion light years away
beyond the edge of the observable universe
is the end or the beginning
or so we think.

Seed

Every part of a mustard plant
grows from a tiny seed.
Every mustard seed
grows from a mustard plant.
Every moment of grace
grows from a tiny hope.
Every hope in every life
grows from a moment of grace.
Every moment in a life
is like a mustard seed.
Every life in every place
may give a tiny hope.

All men are brothers

All men are brothers.
All women are sisters.
All people are people.
Each has his own language.
Each has her own language.
Each family, each group, each nation
has its own language or languages.
And each is somewhat
unintelligible to the others.
Brothers may disagree.
Sisters may disagree.
We may agree to disagree.
Because, fundamentally,
love, respect, and maturity
should protect us from ourselves.

Ice cycles

Cycles of thawing and freezing
hang icicles from eaves.
Popcicles, Eskimo pies, and ice cream
are as crude as frozen meat
compared to ice in a bird bath
forming a crystal sheet.

Variable potential

Turning on the heat
Increasing the pressure
Stepping on the gas
Upping the ante
We carefully calibrate
every adjustment
trying just hard enough
working only so hard
playing only so hard
hoping just enough.

As for why he does the things he does

We say he’s crazy, cuckoo, cockeyed, mad,
a few cards short of a full deck,
demented, deranged, disturbed, daft, daffy, dippy, dotty, potty,
a nutcase, a weirdo, unbalanced, unhinged,
loco, loony, barmy, loopy, whacky, screwy, addlebrained,
bonkers, bananas, fruity, batty, buggy, and off his trolly,
but as for why he does the things he does,
God only knows.

Pet dinosaurs

Small plastic Tyrannosaurus Rexes
terrorize Kens and Barbies
delighting small boys everywhere.
Rexy stomps up the halls
to munch on sisters’ ankles
leaving an imaginary trail
of blood and gore.

The perspective of time

History mocks fools and great minds
convinced of their own greatnesses.
Things larger than life grow smaller
as they slip through the narrow neck
of the hourglass of time
in which each tiny grain of sand
is convinced of its own greatness
and the modernity of its own.

Effects

The Doppler effect
is only a small part
of the great summation of effects
that includes the John Doe effect
by which every customer
approaches anonymity
relative to the number of customers
and the Bulwar-Lytton effect
by which every writer
approaches mediocrity
relative to amount of his or her output.

Microstrains

Familiarity breeds
microstrains; microstrains
breed contempt.
Eventually, it may be,
microfractures rupture,
and microslippages avalanche.
Energy harvesting
may eventually capitalize
microstrains.
Boiling too much water
may eventually rust
my microwave screen.
Small annoyances
may eventually fracture
my patience.

Cartoon anesthesics

Shock is an anesthetic,
or at least that’s one way to explain it,
even though it’s useless
as a medical procedure.
So is a great blow on the skull
with a rubber hammer.
Early doctors, tempted by the simplicity
of the rubber hammer procedure,
didn’t understand its long-term effects.
Similar to the offer in jest
to help with the pain of a broken wrist
by smashing the opposite thumb with a hammer.
Pain is a complex issue,
but not for puppets
or characters in cartoons,
not for opponents in video games.

Perpetual entropy

Potential energy
Perpetual entropy
Hypothesized ocean
Actualized emotion
Imperpetual motion
Intellectual commotion

Honesty

Democracy thrives in sunshine.
Honesty shines through tinted lenses.
You may have any color so long as it’s blue.

Spots

As if a blemish
had appeared
on the Flemish virgin
the virgin Mary
has spots
on her sinless soul
so we suffer
loss of faith
even cognitive dissonance
even though
there gradually emerges
a measure of sense to it all
unable to sympathize
with those who cooly examine
the sores of whores.

Nebulae

Given our finest instruments
a doctor cannot sketch
the difficulty of a body.
The organs too remote,
the parts too tiny,
too hidden, too complex,
too sensitive to measure,
too complex for reason to fathom,
too miraculous when it is well,
too dreadful when it malfunctions.
We make our own instruments
made of hope and luck,
made of listening, made of caring.
If these means also fail,
then it is difficult to imagine better
but easy to suffer the lack.

Limited senses

Dung beetles roll their dung balls in straight lines
guided by seeing the polarization of the sky.
Polarized sunglasses can show us the same information
though we don’t roll dung balls in straight lines.

Blinded by love

Seeing things, hearing voices,
and believing what we cannot know,
we gaze into our lover’s eyes
full as crystal balls,
and believe that we are seeing
what we fear
or what we favor.
Or we deny the obvious—
how we depend on everything
on others, whom we defy, taking,
but not giving enough.
After death or separation
promises thwarted,
lost, violated, abandoned,
victim of a series of acts of God,
narcism becomes pathological
little else matters more.
Or, having nothing, we need too much
and give more than we should
like a fire that burns up everything
but the stones.
Self-diagnosis is unreliable
for lunatics and geniuses.
And even normal people—
not dulled or complacent—
should be continually falling in love
with everything they see.

Ephemerides

Before the discovery of the outer planets
ephemerides were thinner
and astrologers had fewer explanations
for oddball personalities.
Being born with Neptune under Libra
and Jupiter in retrograde under Pisces
has a lot to say for a person
that otherwise might be difficult to articulate.

Ectoplasm

Protoplasm, “first form,” is not to be confused
with ectoplasm, “external form,” an alleged
form of matter exuded through pores of a psychic medium
and draped over spiritual beings to make them visible,
but we don’t have anything more to say about that,
except that people can call things what they want.
The term ectoplasm is also used
for the outer portion of the cytoplasm of a cell,
which normally wouldn’t involve deception or fakery.

Oxymorons

“Guncotton” sounds soft
but don’t stuff it in your pillow.
It’s not a safe explosive.
If it would kill only bad people
and win only just wars,
it would be awfully good.

Precedents

The baker’s son becomes a baker;
the president’s a president.
Bred to breed
we desire what our progenitors desired
and thwart our instincts
only to thwart ourselves. And, yet,
we no longer live in trees
but in towers built by others
and can fall from them.

Precision

When I try to be as precise
in everyday life
as I had to be
when programming computers,
other people get annoyed.

Arguments against torture, arguments against war

There never has been a war
in which innocent people have not suffered.
There never has been a confession under torture
that a jury of peers would not doubt.
When a policeman kills an innocent woman,
law enforcement suffers.
When a U.S. drone kills innocent people in Pakistan,
national interests everywhere suffer.
An act of torture debases
both the victim and the torturer.
The real reason for torture
is not gaining information,
but asserting the dominance
of one group over another.
If power itself is not evil,
then its arrogance is.
The benefits that war and torture claim
are far smaller than their hidden costs.
This is true of our own arrogance,
and the arrogance of our enemies.

Better living through chemistry

Everything we eat is made of chemicals.
Our clothes are made of chemicals.
Our cars are made of chemicals.
Our homes are made of chemicals.
The earth is made of raw chemicals
but most are cooked before consumption.

Molecules

Molecules of air
churn molecules of seawater
against each other,
against the earth,
against the moon,
and push enough
to move the oceans.

Is it not relative?

The Celsius scale is relative to two points,
the freezing and boiling points of water.
Each one-hundredth of the interval between these two points
is a Celsius degree, so the degree is relative.
The Kelvin scale is also relative to two points,
absolute zero and the Celsius degree.
Without the relation to the relative degree,
we would have no scale of kelvins.

Beauty and motion

Hans discovered that the light rain that slanted toward him when he moved with the light wind slanted away from him when he stood still. —The Complete Hans Hans

Both planets and people are wanderers
drifting across a framework of stars.
The apparent size and speed of an object
is proportional to its distance,
so a jet in the sky
seems both small and slow.
A line of trees along a country road
appears to move more quickly
than the buildings behind it,
and these appear to move more quickly
than the hills behind the buildings.
Eyes that wander,
people who travel,
children on swings,
lovers of rollercoasters, skateboards, bicycles, and trains
discover perspectives
that move the world.

Your number

Your number is not dimensionless.
Your number is a measure of you.
Your number brings joy to some,
and irritates others beyond measure.
Some think they have your number;
others know it as a mystery of mysteries.

Knee-jerk reactions

I know evidence of past performance
doesn’t support my hopes
for the team, political candidate, negotiator;
however, I’m willing to give them a chance.
I personally saw a man find water for a well
using a forked wand of willow.
It doesn’t matter to me
if scientists say there’s nothing to it.
I agree it’s not probable
anyone can channel an entity living out of time,
but she believes she’s not just making it up,
so I listen to what she says.
When we asked, the Ouija board
pointed to the right answers.
Yes, it rained yesterday;
yes, there’s an afterworld.
OK, let’s accept for now
you don’t believe in UFOs,
but just you wait until you see one,
then you’ll believe.

The handles

I’m looking for the handles
to end war
and prevent accidents
regardless of whether
the extent of human misery
is a universal constant
regardless of whether
people will continue to believe
pain and sacrifice are necessary
because I know
people who shouldn’t need to
are and continue to suffer.
I’m searching for the handles
because I know
we cannot make people
look twice before crossing the street,
eat well, exercise frequently,
respect the environment,
stop blaming others,
or realize that nations
cannot achieve peace
by waging war.
Pride and greed
also ignorance and immaturity
are as necessary as love and experience.
They cannot be bought and sold
cannot be legislated
cannot be circumvented.
So, if I find the handles
and disable the pumps
I’ll show everyone
how to put the handles back on.

Catching

Some say it isn’t catching;
some say it is.
Say whatever you like,
we don’t experiment on humans
and guinea pigs model humans
in only basic mammalian ways.
Determining efficacy often
depends only on trial and error.

Flame test

The presence of rubidium
turns the flame bright red;
however, calcium in your sample
masks its color with a brighter red.
Abraham built an altar
and lit a fire,
but God was testing Abraham,
not Isaac.
Both the crucible of faith,
and the crucible of doubt
can blind you
to the obvious.

Surface tension

Inside a bubble, a molecule of water
bonds with neighbors balanced in all directions,
but at a surface all its efforts
pull inward and across the surface.
Thus explains the magical ability
of water striders to stride water,
of beads of water to assume a spherical shape,
and of soap bubbles to float in the air.

The disappearance

Everyone says we don’t know why
the Neanderthals disappeared,
but it should be obvious if one considers
the rate at which humans
have been destroying other cultures,
other languages, other habitats,
other tribes, races, and species.
It should be obvious
if one considers our recent histories
of pogroms, holocausts, and genocides.
In the darkness of every human persists
a disappearing region
touched by fear and hatred
that is difficult to question
and hard to own.

Halloween deceptions

Because it’s Halloween
you enter the party blindfolded.
At the door
polyester fibers pull across your face.
Someone takes your hand
and pushes it into a bowl of grapes.
If these are not spider webs
if these are not human eyeballs
if the mournful music you hear
doesn’t make you apprehensive
then playacting is
indistinguishable from real life.
but in real life when we remove a blindfold
we find another blindfold under it.
We poke at things in the dark
to give unshapen forms angle and texture
and it’s impossible not to imagine
that things conform to our analogies.
When the genuine is indistinguishable
from a good fake, we are equally innocent.

Sleepers

Terrorist cells may hide
anywhere in the body.
Normal processes
may be corrupted
according to the effects of previous corruptions
to support their dark purposes.
Sleeping, they wait their time
when their destructive actions
will inspire new cells like themselves.
Terrorists will destroy both the weak and the strong
starting with expectations of normal life.

Evolution

Someday kids will never have seen
long division
or the second hand of a clock.
A rotary dial phone
is already as quaint as the switchboards
operated by women in uniforms
in movies from the fifties.
Last year, pagers were more necessary
than modesty.
This year, everyone has a cell phone and internet access
and wonders why one would ever write
a personal letter.
Next year, some will wonder what life was like
when we didn’t have personal digital assistants
to remember things for us.
Meanwhile, hearts are healed
and hearts are broken
as we struggle to make
and break attachments
ameliorating the pain of striving
toward our individual destinies
much the same as we were doing
when we invented time.

Analysis

I think I could
figure out anything,
given the right tools
and enough time.
Rocket scientist,
brain surgeon,
brain surgeon for a rocket scientist.
At least I’m persistent.
If you pay me well,
I’d buy an analyst’s couch,
and I’d be willing
for you to do the talking.

Everything’s a battery

If it stores energy
as, according to Einstein,
all matter does,
as any living thing, animal or vegetable,
retains and expends
until its useful life is spent,
let’s tune the parameters,
try to make everything more efficient,
lighter, more powerful,
safer, more durable,
cheaper, easier to maintain,
and kinder on the environment.

Crossing waters

The sweet potato spread across the Pacific
without the benefit of boats.
Not so the koala, who hugs its gum tree,
or the kangaroo, who hops and swims
but would not cross the Wallace line.
Why do some animals cross the water?
Why do some think better?
Many birds migrate across oceans
but some are more like me,
preferring smaller and safer waters.

Making connections

In this light
exposed in the interstices of stone
we think
of fears
errors
failures
yet we may leap instantly
between symbol and name
name and individual
individual and species
believing and seeing.
To say a thing is possible
almost admits it has happened.
A point on the hyperbole
arbitrarily close to the asymptotic
is never reached
except in the imagination.
Faith is as inexplicable as love,
whatever works
and whatever reason cannot muster.
Yet nothing could be easier.
To refuse is almost as if
being human were a weakness
not a strength.

Like us

Clearly, mammals are like us.
After all, we are mammals.
Also marsupials and octopi.
How about birds and fish? Aren’t they like us?
They have backbones like us,
hearts and brains,
and little brown eyes that look at us.
Maybe reptiles? Turtles are cute,
and some think dinosaurs
were warm-blooded, like us.
But I rule out, I categorically rule out
molluscs and crabs. I like them,
but mainly on my dinner plate.
Also worms and insects.
Insects and worms are not like us.

Hot

Huffers in hot rods compress air
to burn fuel more efficiently, burning more fuel,
exciting hot-rodders with their burn, burning hot.

Speech speach

Would an animal commit no wrong,
be it a snail or a lamb,
that animal wouldn’t eat plants, make slime,
drop turds, or complain plaintively.
Though the heart were pure
the cause of any act of love
can seem like deception, coercion, or greed.
The great powers of human beings,
love, imagination, force of arms, and speech,
since they don’t control themselves,
are all under suspicion.
In our study of how things have gone bad
since Adam and Eve left Eden,
we imagine the meaning of life and death
and ask whether one may lord it over another
without guilt.
The abusive parent believes in the benefits of discipline.
The precise line between proper authority
and totalitarian rule is difficult to draw,
yet most people think
they would know where to draw it.
An act of deception takes advantage
of capabilities of a victim
that should contribute to the general survival.
We make sacrifices; we ask for sacrifices.
We almost always imagine ourselves justified,
however gross our transgressions,
though the best of intensions
can produce the worst of results.
The DNA of a disease organism, say, a bacteria,
adds to the genetic pool of its host, ourselves.
Misfortune may leave one stronger,
pretty lies may be more attractive
than the plain truth,
but these provide no excuse for deliberate mistreatment.
Our sins are thoroughly mingled with graces;
every act of volition is compromised
both by reality and by fantasy.

Cerebral localizations

It’s easier in retrospect
to discover the murderer
whom the novelist has created
for a particular case after
the detective has made his final observation,
but, in real life, guess wrong
and you’re seldom the wiser.
Perilously we attempt
to fix the moment in time,
to correlate cause and effect,
to separate instinct from logic,
to locate the point of no return.
We cannot reconcile our ideals
with the appearance of reality,
when reality fails to meet
irreconcilable desires.
Scientists can be too eager
for any solution that fits the data.
Doctors can be too eager;
lovers can be too eager;
artists can be too eager;
hunters can be too eager
to shoot the deer
that wears the bright orange vest.
If one lover complains, then the other
has another view. We’ve got to wonder
if our suffering is self-inflicted,
if there’s any such thing
as an honest mistake.

Stupidity

“Listen please to understand what I mean.”

Here I’ll say
stupidity is a characteristic of others
or what we were before we knew better.
Here I’ll say
stupidity is the water in us
derived from ancient oceans.
Stupidity is our trusted companion,
forgiving when calamity falls,
obscuring a multitude of sins,
responding to all important questions,
excusing our shortcomings.
Stupidity has many virtues
such as simplicity, confidence, and persistence.
It is stoic, brave, loyal,
and more faithful than a Saint Bernard.
Stupidity is faster than a locomotive,
stronger than stainless steel,
and stickier than the tar baby.
Stupidity is more funny.
Stupidity is camp.
Stupidity gets more votes.
Stupidity sells more cars than sex
and pushes more sex than sex appeal.
Stupidity fits nicely into many of the habits of normal people.
Alcohol consumption and stupidity are mutually reinforcing;
forgetfulness and stupidity are mutually reinforcing;
pride, idealism, and ideology reinforce stupidity;
fanaticism and stupidity are mutually reinforcing;
cynicism and obeying orders reinforce stupidity;
desperation, suffering, peer pressure, and anger reinforce stupidity;
advertising and stupidity are mutually reinforcing;
willful ignorance and stupidity are mutually reinforcing.
Talk of stupidity and farting have this in common;
neither are acceptable in polite society
but both are irrepressible and everpresent.
Many great discoveries were made by accident
and stupidity is a great promoter of accidents.
Stupidity is often preferable to intelligence;
mustard gas and the atom bomb were not works of stupidity.
Being stupid has a survival value.
If only Adam and Eve in the garden
were more stupid.
There’s an invisible line between stupidity and genius
and it may be impossible to distinguish
stupidity and inspiration.
Stupidity and laziness do more work every day
than intelligence and industry
largely due to the law of large numbers,
and partly due to the fact
that stupidity has entropy working for it.
Even so, stupidity of omission
is greater than stupidity of commission.
Stupidity makes and breaks more marriages
than religion,
and compensates for snobbishness and egotism
between friends and lovers.
Stupidity is a basic human right,
our first defense against cruelty,
against yearning for what we cannot have
and suffering the mistakes of fate.
Stupidity is protected by all democratic societies
for both citizens and the government,
and in monarchies and dictatorships an honored privilege
but for only those in power and their friends.
Stupidity is a necessity of a free-market society,
and an unavoidable consequence of a communist system.
Abuse of power cannot suppress stupidity,
but can force it underground
where it grows stronger.
According to anecdotal reports,
stupidity is always on the winning side.
You know stupidity has triumphed when
the criminal is as stupid as the victim,
when the negative campaign wins the election,
when more than half of all football teams are winning,
when the sins of the parents
are visited upon the children,
when refugees and famines
persist on the face of the earth,
when species continue forced marches to oblivion,
when nations spend more money on armies and arms,
than on education and the arts,
when sport cars, mistresses, and wars
make up for penile dysfunction and poor comb-overs.
God’s special grace falls on stupid people.
If it fell a little more on me
then my own stupidity would seem less important.
The respect due to strangers
should also be due to stupid people;
even if a stupid person isn’t an angel in disguise,
we should probably consider
he or she might be less stupid than we are.
Bragging about how smart you are
is a symptom of stupidity.
Everyone has experience and expertise
in some core stupidity.
We all know at least one stupid person;
if you can’t identify with him or her,
then you are committing the sin of pride
or are just being stupid, or both.
Mirrors don’t show mental or moral qualities—
cupidity, infidelity, venality, or stupidity.
The normal symptoms of stupidity could be false negatives.
The transparency of stupidity
is an important challenge for caring people.
Even stupid people want to make the world a better place.
Even stupid people love their children.
Even stupid people can live useful and rewarding lives.
But stupid people are suffering every day.
One climbed a power pole with a six-pack of beer
and peed on the lines;
one tried to steal a safe he thought wasn’t empty
and stood below it as he eased it down the stairs;
one opened his own letter bomb
when it was returned for lack of postage;
one avoided being stung by a swarm of bees
by sealing his head in a plastic bag.
These are only a few of the classic cases.
Whether ancient or modern
stupidity is misery’s creative outlet.
People who are trying to understand stupidity
are on a journey
and can be loved not for where they are
but for where they think they are going.
I don’t say anything about idiocy,
or mere ignorance, or mental or physical disability,
or the effects of naturally occurring hormones,
or the side effects of medical treatments,
or lack of a chance in life, or accidents;
these are problems
and are not the same as stupidity.
Yet stupidity has many synonyms and many friends,
which are better left unnamed;
many other vital powers
burn stupidity’s loaves and break its windows
forget to water its gardens
litter its yards and poison its cats
crash its cars, burn its fields
and mislead its recreants
but never ignore its constancy.
Stupidity is a modus operandi.
Stupidity is an explanation, not an excuse.
Stupidity and history are completely intertwined.
Stupidity gets noticed.
Stupidity is not only a means to an end;
it is both an end in itself
and a never-ending process.
More books and poems should be written about stupidity;
many books already have
but lack the word "Stupidity" in their titles.
Stupidity is like all other important aspects of human life—
like great art or rock and roll—
if you take it seriously
you’ll never get to the bottom of it.

Defensive mimicry

When North Koreans say
they have an atom bomb,
does it matter if it’s true?
The bark may be worse
than the bite, but
hold up your head
and stick out your chest.
It might save you a fight.

Flammable

Later plastics avoided the flaws of celluloid,
less flammable, less likely to explode,
and less likely to deteriorate
when exposed to heat or moisture.
Picasso said that it’s difficult
to make something new
so that at first it might be ugly.

Mountaineer

“It’s hard to take air for granted
at the top of the Weisshorn
and easier to wonder
why clouds stay in layers
when you’re looking down on them from above.
“Snow up here never completely melts
but hot air rises
so something must be happening to heat
in this thinning air.
“The leeward side of the mountain is dry
but the windward side is green.
Water vapor must condense out of the air
as it’s forced to rise.
“Mountaineers and balloonists know
wind blows in different directions
at different elevations.
Barometric pressure makes this happen, or,
if we reduce to first causes,
sunlight and gravity.
The atmosphere is stratified by gravity
and heated unevenly by the sun.
Wind is air moving in its layers
to even out the pressure.
“People ask me why a physicist climbs mountains.
Even my guides won’t follow me up there.
They think an educated man
with a prestigious degree
couldn’t learn anything important
from a monstrous chunk of rock.
But there it waits like the wise man in his cave
impassive
and taking nothing for granted.”

James Clerk Maxwell

James Clerk, named Maxwell after his mother died,
studied at Edinburg, Cambridge, and Trinity,
earned honors, prizes, and a mathematics degree at 23;
taught at Marischal College and married the daughter of the principal,
planned the famous Cavendish laboratory
and became the first Cavendish professor at Cambridge,
was the first to use probability and statistics
to explain the behavior of gases,
studied color blindness and color vision,
resulting in the first color photograph,
extended Michael Faraday’s theories of electromagnetism
suggesting that “light consists in the transverse undulations
of the same medium which is the cause
of electric and magnetic phenomenon.”
Nine years after he died in 1879 at 48,
according to his theory, Heinrich Hertz
demonstrated that an electric disturbance
is transmitted through space in waves,
and, nearly one-hundred years after he died,
NASA’s Voyager space probe
confirmed Maxwell’s theory that the rings of Saturn
are composed of many small particles.

Fact and ritual

Dissatisfaction is inevitable
so some anticipate failure with fervor,
hoping, at the same time, for the best.
No special pathology needs to be attributed;
a worse case is always available to reassure the loser.
Old injuries form badges of courage
and symbols of veneration.
The familiar rote learning of childhood—
multiplication tables, nursery rhymes, rules of hopscotch—
color our world with depth and warmth, unlike
futuristic complexities that we fear to accept.
The key element of the scientific method
is approximation, not experiment.
To shorten the calculation, we simplify the model.
Predicting the weather
or side effects of a medicine
shouldn’t be matters of life and death.
Making do with incomplete knowledge, inadequate
explanations, ineffective control, we cannot be satisfied.
But compromise is inevitable,
and we can get used to anything.

Locking rings

I learned to unlock and lock the Chinese ring puzzles
my uncle bought for me in San Francisco Chinatown.
Then I started linking triangular with circular,
and large with small, until every pair was linked
with all the other pairs to the extent that every ring
fit in all the others in a single mass
of snakes writhing in a perpetual metal orgy.

Miasmas

Television news; political horse-races.
Advertisements, bluster, obfuscation.
Obeying orders; doing what you’re told.
Drinking too much, ____ing too much.
Letting experts take care of things.
Giving up after the first failure.
Thinking it doesn’t matter.

Knowledge

Loose lips
lose lives.
Knowledge
is power.
What do
you know?

Pattern recognition

The pattern of repeating colors in generations of peas,
the layout for a book on scientific discoveries,
Christopher Alexander’s architectural vocabulary,
Vogue dress patterns, molds for mass production
of plastic fashion models,
model cars, real cars, ideas of cars,
cartoon, camera, computer,
folk, classical, country, rock, disco, punk,
paper clip, creative process, and poetic form,
once established, once named, becomes obvious.
Yet, given a diagnosis of lymphoma and actuarial tables,
we want to think of only exceptions to the pattern.
In the forest, the eye ignores the mass of leaves
and focuses on the berries. Some are poisonous.
Different diagnoses have similar symptoms.
Diagnostic tests have false negatives and false positives.
If the first doctor disappoints you, get a second opinion.
Doctors were wrong about great grandpa Sharp,
who went home, got drunk, and died of old age years later.
A friend of a friend had an even worse case
and now she is completely cured.
Differences between individuals
are greater than differences between groups.
It runs in the family (easy to say),
but she is an individual (easy to say).
She must decide for herself. Chance does better
than most economic advisors, and how well
do doctors know anyone? They might as well say,
“She’s happy; she’ll live as long as she likes.”
Later, if her condition worsens,
then she won’t be so happy.
Instead, she’ll be ready to accept the doctor’s opinion
and no one will be able to tell if it’s wrong
because a life is not a double-blind scientific study.

Engines of war

Alfred was accused of improving the engines of war,
but he thought that his explosives would lead to peace
because they made war more horrible.
Obviously he underestimated the human capacity
to suffer and to inflict suffering, and it’s ironic
that many later repeated the same argument
to support the deployment of nuclear bombs.

Fact and ritual

We memorize our multiplication tables
(the familiar rote learning of childhood),
but we are uneasy with the periodic table.
Uneasy with the lies we tell ourselves,
uneasy with the hint of damning truth,
the shock of realizing all our knowledge,
if not wrong, is at least misleading.
We can explain the effects of gross manipulations
but the essence is still pristine and unknown.
Touch that and it might explode in our faces.

Mysterious rays

Mysterious rays emanate from space
and pass through our bodies lickety split.
Dark matter, dark energy.
If it were only visible we would know more about it,
but then it would not be what it is.
UFOs may radiate unidentified rays
or they may reflect gravity waves for levitation.
Nanowaves, smaller than microwaves,
have practical uses, such as cleaning teeth
and visualizing processes on the atomic scale.
Quantum rays may entangle the states of particles
or prevent separate particles from sharing the same state.
Mysterious rays, yet undiscovered,
could either heal or harm all lifeforms.
Hummingbirds and bugs may see things
that we only wish we knew about.

Cathode ray vision

Cathode rays, negatively charged,
and can be deflected by a magnetic field
or made to rapidly sweep side to side,
top to bottom, to illuminate a test pattern
on a phosphorous screen,
or to bleep from eleven to three.

Testable hypotheses

It’s OK to have opinions,
but working hypotheses
are better if they can be tested.
Maybe the wings of birds
stretch across the sky
to find more air for support.
Maybe any animal with a brain
has feelings
and can reason with abstractions.
Maybe a device can be built
that distorts time and space
like gravity.
Maybe dreams of flying
are not always a symptom
of overreaching.

Resistance behavior

When a delicate wire gets really hot,
it melts, making its resistance a moot question.
When it gets incredibly cold,
its resistance becomes independent of temperature.
Ideally, behavior depends on principles,
but in practice can randomly misbehave.

Making things happen

Science cannot predict when a look
becomes a laugh.
Two magnets may repel or attract.
Although a state of mind may be valuable,
it would be more profitable
if it were more predictable.

Chinatown radiometers

Radiometers and drinking birds
in the windows of shops along Grant Avenue
attracted my attention.
I had spending money
and could explain it later.
I looked closely,
but never bought any.
The pressure of sunlight
was only one possibility.

Thermion dance

A metallic surface in a vacuum
is half metal, half vacuum, and dancing
dancing on that surface, dance thermions.
When the surface gets too hot
thermions cannot stay on, and so they slip,
they slip into the vacuum like dust motes.
Thermions slip like drops of mist, float
into space, drift like helpless mosquitoes,
and fly like tiny moths attracted to a lamp.

No limit

There is a give
to how much you may give,
and, sad to say,
you get only one lifetime.
But there is no limit
to how many loves
you may love,
or how much you may love them.

Crystal divination

The power of crystals
to orient the mind
precedes discovery
of its electromagnetic effects.
Listen carefully
to the inside a seashell.
It does indeed seem
like the sound of the sea.

Eccentricity

If the center of the rotor
is not at the center of the chamber
and the vanes are pushed by springs against the chamber wall
unequal partitions—intake and discharge—improve efficiency.
I think the same advantage cannot be claimed
for people with eccentric behaviors—must be
there are other reasons we love them.

Inventing

Many people could advise if you need help
sitting before a blank piece of paper,
a threatening, accusatory blank piece of paper.
Necessity can also be threatening and accusatory,
but maybe your necessity is warm and comforting;
maybe your blank piece of paper is an inviting doorway.
Think of it that way, and when any little rascal
shows its little head in your doorway,
don’t let it escape, don’t wait for any other,
but get its statement and measurements,
and never never think that you must make it
anything other than it really is.

On call

Reach out metaphorically
and metaphorically touch someone.
Consider it a necessity
at work, at home, and on the street.
Disembodied,
a voice can seem unreal.
A call is a demand
often for money, always for time and attention.
It can shock
when the caller has tragic news.
Yet the call could be a gift
from one whom you love.

Spores

Spores may lay
long dormant
Seeds of squash
buried in a pot
An original
attachment
A physical
connection
A different
identity
A new
strain
Back in
the ground.

Pills

The three weird sisters
boil poisoned entrails
for a charm. We toss back
aspirin and probiotics.
Fish is brain food;
fructose is energy food.
Each pill, we feel, helps
quantify our future.

Canals on Mars

The Italian astronomer
Giovanni Virinio Schiaparelli,
director of the observatory at Brera,
charted the surface of Mars
and described it as being criss-crossed
with channels. Unfortunately,
the Italian word for channels
is canali, mistranslated canals,
and everybody knows
canals are built
to move water
to support agriculture
to feed people in cities.
From a long distance, lines seen
while straining at Mars
through wavering skies
and murky lenses
convince the eye
there’s a pattern and a purpose.
It is easier to believe than to doubt.
Even the willing suspension of disbelief
is an easy trick for creatures
who fall in love
who survive hurricanes and pogroms
who have their own prejudices and self-interests
and for whom thoughts of little red Martians
is entertaining or comforting.
Normally, the mind sees only what it wants.
Belief in the unsupportable
is the definition of belief.
It is banal to point out
that many are sadly mistaken,
even people with good intentions.
When the unpredictable cannot be avoided
the shock can damage the mind.
After the trauma subsides
scar tissue can diminish
the flexibility that helps the mind work.
The work of the mind
is to make the subtle shifts in color and shading
cohere into pleasures or threats.
Canals on Mars are far enough away
not to threaten
but only tease.
Maybe this explains everything.

Cayenne

In Somalia,
teaching hygene to tribal children,
the health worker needs to convince them
that things they cannot see
can yet harm them,
so the trick is to put
a little cayenne in a small bowl,
have them rub a finger in it and wipe it off
until it is all gone,
then ask
if they would touch the finger to an eye—
No, no, no, no!

Aerosols and dyes

Send $15.97 today
to the Institute of Applied Mythology
for an aerosol can of Spirit Fog.
Spray it in the presence of a spook and,
behold, its outline appears!
Please also enquire about Imp Dye.
A teaspoon of Imp Dye, properly diluted,
easily detects nymphs in backyard pools and fountains,
and those pesky invisible water cats.
Now $17.95 while supplies last.
Today’s hint for the homeowner:
Spirit Fog also helps you detect leaking
electric power from kitchen appliances.
Our motto is “Making Visible
the Unseen World.”

Imitation

Art imitates life;
bugs imitate leaves;
all have reasons.
Growing crystals imitate plants;
yes, but we like there to be a reason
for the similarity.

At a distance

Gravity quietly pulls across space
at the speed of light.
Lines of magnetic force
imperceptively pass through glass.
Many implicitly accept the deceptions
of politicians and con men,
hoping there’s no gap
between the future and their dreams.

Leaking pores

Your gas leaks from tiny pores
you didn’t even know were there.
Helium from your balloon
is on its way to outer space.
Since entropy is a universal law,
you might wonder about
all your other leaking pores.
But not to worry.
Your existence suggests
life can yet sustain itself.

From a distance

I see by your outfit
that you are a cowboy.
I see by my eyes
from a trick of the light.
The glints in your eyes
hint of your passion.
They show you’ve been wronged
and can’t make it right.

Effects

A mysterious layer may underly this obvious one,
but missing the obvious effects worries me more.
Effects may be visible, but not recognized; causes
may not be understood. Everything is connected
and the boundaries that we think are protecting us
may be threatening our imaginary innocence.

Economic incentive

Or “The story of an oxidizing agent.”
This unacknowledged helper
had already saved lives as an antiseptic.
Little did one suspect
it would be playing a leading role
in an unrelated drama.
The stakes were high.
The government had tried to influence
the scientific elite,
but the relevant scientific facts
were already known.
The work remaining was
more for technical assistants
and veternarians.
Was the work of a technical assistant
stolen by the laboratory director?
Was our agent’s role as an oxidizer
deliberately obscured?
Could a world-reknown scientist
be working only for money?
The gambit paid off.
Plausible deniability
had been carefully established.
Even good agents
under less pressure
have been known to crack.

Transducer

If you made a transducer
to convert gravity into levity
would you unleash it on the world?
Time to get serious
about not making money
doing what we love.

Still kills

Concerted efforts
eradicated smallpox
but pneumonia
still kills.

Probiotic joys

Our phagocytes love those
yeasts and active cultures—
if they don’t kill us.
Sprinkle it on your cereal,
bury it in the light of the full moon,
and make oh boy
cheese, yogurt, and tempeh.

Susceptible

I’m sold on your cold,
your style, your smile.

One thousand uses

George Washington Carver published only
one hundred and five ways to prepare peanuts,
but he didn’t have a poetic license
and he wasn’t trying to be funny.
Seriously, however, he proposed three hundred uses for peanuts,
including glue, metal polish, and wood stain.
But he was silent about using peanut sauce in stir-fries,
and about adding peanut butter to energy bars,
and sticking peanuts up your nostrils to reduce smells.
Marcellus Gilmore Edson added sugar to peanut butter to stiffen it,
but not chocolate chips, nor ginger cookies, nor coconut flakes,
nor, for a warm thrill, baking chocolate and chipotle powder.
Orange rind, crushed mint candy, and marmalade are all good.
Peanut-butter pie, peanut-butter ice-cream, peanut-butter cookies.
Peanut-stuffed olives and peanut-butter-coated chicken wings.
Paste peanut butter on pretzels, slather it on chocolate bars,
spread it on cookies, thin and drizzle it over vegetables and rice.
Peanut butter and raisins on celery is called “ants on a stick.”
Eat it with granola, eat it with carrots, mix it the birdseed to feed the birds.
Sandwiches with peanut butter and banana, with peanut butter and mayonaise.
Cucumber and peanut-butter tea cakes. Salted peanut-butter chips.
Add a dollop of peanut butter to hot oatmeal or vegetable soup.
Make a cake of puffed rice stuck together with peanut butter.
Dip long-stemmed strawberries in melted peanut-butter.
Peanut-butter and banana popsicles.
Peanut-butter-stuffed pastries.
Baked apple with peanut butter in the core.
Above all, be proud of your humble peanut butter.
It connects you with the poor farmers of the Southern states;
it connects you with history and people throughout the world.