I was listening to Ira Flato's Talk of the Nation: Science Friday on Friday, February 18 because he was featuring A. Einstein's miracle year, and I had made a promise to myself that I would not avoid physics in my poetry to avoid the risk of being misunderstood and continue to be associated with science instead of literature (or whatever poetry is supposed to be). Well I guess the intro to the show put me in my place, the opening sigh was a report on a Harvard University class of 25 students that included only one (1) that could correctly explain why it was cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Maybe that says something about Harvard students in particular, but more likely something about the risk of a science allusion in a poem in general. My opinion is that if Greek mythology is fair, why not it's 21st century equivalent?

In any case, I was in the middle of reading John Barrow’s book, Constants of Nature, and had written the following poem about cosmology and how a physicist like Brian Green and a philosopher like Ken Wilber might take a differing views of a TOE:

Man on a Mission
or, . . . it only sounds like Kosmos


John Barrow used Fred Hoyle
as his cosmological foil.

Took the gas from the ". . . Cloud"
and redefined life as less endowed.

Smaller than a quantum blip
for safe passage on Noah’s ship.

Sailing off to live forever
on the Final Anthropic space endeavor.

Not human life as we know it,
but what the cosmos will permit.

It falls just short of a superstring
umM . . . Theory of Everything.

So despite the risks, I share it anyway, because how humans observe the universe seems important, somehow, even for an idle thinker on a bicycle.

Why physicists should seek the counsel of poets before making a Valentine promise:

Leibniz in Love

A poet without an ear

used an alphabet without letters

to write a poem without words.

(It's) the rhythm we overhear

within the color of birds-—

within the eyes of coquetters

within true love, my dear.

Love Debunks Leibniz

A poet without an ear

used an alphabet without letters

to write a poem without words.

(It's) the rhythm we overhear

recorded in the color of birds—

translated by mate-getters

left speechless every year.

You can't believe everthing you thought you heard because stories change as they get retold to fit the place and time.

Getting It Wrong First

nai(e)ve
Mr. Adam
woke up with a hard on
Bible transliterations say
garden

(*<&(

Why is George Bush successful? He lies and we still believe.



Repeat After Me



When incompetents rule the world
a C minus precedent takes over,
Mediocrity matters.
Don’t worry.
God takes care of fools, children, and “brings pestilence on thine enemies.”
Don’t listen to the scholars
(code word for enemies).
They’re clever.
Think things through.
Ask questions.
Study.
Ask questions.
Doubt themselves.

When incompetents rule the world
No need for the best and brightest
Praise the Lord on High
Don’t worry.
God takes care of fools, children, and “brings pestilence on thine enemies.”
Don’t listen to doubters
(code word for enemies).
They’re concerned.
Think things through.
Ask questions.
Study.
Ask questions.
Doubt themselves.

When incompetents rule the world
issues are black or white.
Right or wrong
Don’t worry.
God takes care of fools, children, and “brings pestilence on thine enemies.”
Don’t listen to the reasonable
(code word for enemies).
They’re careful.
Think things through.
Ask questions.
Study.
Ask questions.
Doubt themselves.

When incompetents rule the world
sycophants agree on everything
Don’t question authority
Don’t worry.
God takes care of fools, children, and “brings pestilence on thine enemies.”
Don’t listen to the dissidents
(code word for enemies).
They’re prudent.
Think things through.
Ask questions.
Study.
Ask questions.
Doubt themselves.

When incompetents rule the world
It’s either “for us” or “against us.”
Patriot or traitor.
Don’t worry.
God takes care of fools, children, and “brings pestilence on thine enemies.”
Don’t listen to old generals
(code word for enemies).
They’re practiced.
Think things through.
Ask questions.
Study.
Ask questions.
Doubt themselves.

When incompetents rule the world
argument is meaningless,
Insanity makes sense..
Don’t worry.
God takes care of fools, children, and “brings pestilence on thine enemies.”
Don’t listen to the innocents.
(code word for enemies).
They’re stupid.
God takes care of them.
No mercy.
Passes judgement
no mercy
for the Romans:

When incompetents rule the world
no failure will seem bizarre,
Celebrate the losers,
don’t worry
whose God will be there to “save us and wipe away our shame.”
Listen to the Manichaean wail.

If you found your way here you should know about Quotable Cyclist.

"The bicycle had, and still has, a humane, almost classical moderation in the kind of pleasure it offers. It is the kind of machine that a Hellenistic Greek might have invented and ridden. It does no violence to our normal reactions: It does not pretend to free us from our normal environment."
—J. B. Jackson