A sea of stars at last were born.
Gradually they fired and formed
out of clouds of dust and gas,
each a mighty sparkly mass.
from Once Upon a Star: A Poetic Journey Through Space
written by James Carter
illustrated by Mar Hernández
Doubleday Books for Young Readers, 2018
Astrophysicists, Rocket Scientists, Cosmologists, Brain Surgeons, Quantum Physicists. They are probably the most intelligent humans on our Earth. They use math to describe the world around us.
Sociolinguists, anthropologists, archeologists, fiction writers, poets. They are also among the most intelligent humans on our Earth. They use history and their imaginations to describe the world around us.
Whether studying our brains’ inner workings, discovering the way a star is born, or using words to paint images that leap from one human brain to another, there is something magical about science and poetry for me.
Science and Poetry I think, are not communicative in the mathematical sense. Poetry is probably not Science, but Science probably *is* Poetry. Science is complex. So is Poetry. Scientists seek to understand and explain the world around us. Poets do too. Science condenses its explanations into elegant equations. Poets condense language into beautiful, unusual phrases to present their explanations.
Poetry communicates in sound and metaphor. It’s a poet’s job to provide her readers novel juxtapositions, surprising combinations, unusual pairings of sounds or images or sounds and images that help us all see the world as fresh, possible, miraculous.
One of the best examples for me is William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence” from Songs of Innocence and of Experience. His first four lines
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour
ask us as readers to fill in the blanks. What, do we suppose, he meant? Of course, the answer is metaphor. How else can we extrapolate from each tiny grain of sand our vast, glorious, whole Earth? What else but a wildflower can describe heaven, something we can only imagine as perfect, surprising, robust, exquisite? Can we hold infinity in our hands? I think we can, and do, when we are so caught up in a moment that Time has no linear meaning. Can Blake’s idea of Eternity last only an hour? I think so. It happens when we rush from one do-list item to the next and the next only to have left-over items for tomorrow and the tomorrow after, and after all the way to Eternity.
Blake has given us a way to make meaning of our complicated world in only four lines. He uses common objects: sand; flowers; our own hands; and time itself to encourage us to make our own meanings. He uses metaphor to encourage us to stretch into the unknown.
Science waltzes, arabesques, glides toward Poetry in its descriptions of String Theory and Quantum Theory and the Theory of Everything. They are usually expressed as complicated math formulas, story problems written out in numbers and mathematical symbols.
Using words for now, quantum physics, simply stated, is the study of matter at its most basic level. The theory is really many theories including quantum mechanics and quantum field theories. Scientists attempt to explain how a photon becomes electrical current, why Einstein’s special theory of relativity works, and how Schrödinger’s cat can be alive and dead at the same time. And gravity, that does not fall into any quantum category. But when I let go of my pen, it always drops. Always. Drops.
The concepts involved in quantum everything are huge, but the particles, photons, quarks, leptons it describes are all subatomic. They’re the smallest pieces of matter that scientists can describe. They’re invisible. Microscopes are useless. Particle detectors show scientists that they do exist. They know because the subatomic matter affects the material around it.
String theory also tries to find the smallest speck of matter. The theory describes the tiniest pieces of significance. The teeny strings that stretch, bend, wiggle, twist and sometimes do more than one action at a time vibrate together to explain the music of our universe.
The theory of everything tries to explain, in one brilliant mathematical statement, how and why neutrinos, particles, photons, quarks and leptons dance. How and when these one-dimensional objects attract and repel each other. And why? And is our seemingly endless universe made of grains, tinier than sand?
Philosophers, ethicists, moralists, and religious leaders of all stripes are some of the most intelligent people on our Earth. They use history, literature, science, music, and imagination to help us frame questions whose answers help us understand ourselves and each other.
Could the Theory of Everything have anything to do with G?d however we understand that concept?
All is one. Now is all there is. Unity.
I’m reading His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa (Viking, 2022). From the enslaved life his ancestors escaped, to the wealth they built and enjoyed until it was snatched from them, George Floyd’s family story is one of potential denied, dreams stolen, resilience broken. He had the potential to beat the odds, but the odds beat him. Only through his death did Mr. Floyd, “Big George,” achieve his dream to touch the world. It is a story of the universal told through the specific life of one person. The book is a wake up call to action.
-—be curious! (and think big)
Gradually they fired and formed
out of clouds of dust and gas,
each a mighty sparkly mass.
from Once Upon a Star: A Poetic Journey Through Space
written by James Carter
illustrated by Mar Hernández
Doubleday Books for Young Readers, 2018
Astrophysicists, Rocket Scientists, Cosmologists, Brain Surgeons, Quantum Physicists. They are probably the most intelligent humans on our Earth. They use math to describe the world around us.
Sociolinguists, anthropologists, archeologists, fiction writers, poets. They are also among the most intelligent humans on our Earth. They use history and their imaginations to describe the world around us.
Whether studying our brains’ inner workings, discovering the way a star is born, or using words to paint images that leap from one human brain to another, there is something magical about science and poetry for me.
Science and Poetry I think, are not communicative in the mathematical sense. Poetry is probably not Science, but Science probably *is* Poetry. Science is complex. So is Poetry. Scientists seek to understand and explain the world around us. Poets do too. Science condenses its explanations into elegant equations. Poets condense language into beautiful, unusual phrases to present their explanations.
Poetry communicates in sound and metaphor. It’s a poet’s job to provide her readers novel juxtapositions, surprising combinations, unusual pairings of sounds or images or sounds and images that help us all see the world as fresh, possible, miraculous.
One of the best examples for me is William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence” from Songs of Innocence and of Experience. His first four lines
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour
ask us as readers to fill in the blanks. What, do we suppose, he meant? Of course, the answer is metaphor. How else can we extrapolate from each tiny grain of sand our vast, glorious, whole Earth? What else but a wildflower can describe heaven, something we can only imagine as perfect, surprising, robust, exquisite? Can we hold infinity in our hands? I think we can, and do, when we are so caught up in a moment that Time has no linear meaning. Can Blake’s idea of Eternity last only an hour? I think so. It happens when we rush from one do-list item to the next and the next only to have left-over items for tomorrow and the tomorrow after, and after all the way to Eternity.
Blake has given us a way to make meaning of our complicated world in only four lines. He uses common objects: sand; flowers; our own hands; and time itself to encourage us to make our own meanings. He uses metaphor to encourage us to stretch into the unknown.
Science waltzes, arabesques, glides toward Poetry in its descriptions of String Theory and Quantum Theory and the Theory of Everything. They are usually expressed as complicated math formulas, story problems written out in numbers and mathematical symbols.
Using words for now, quantum physics, simply stated, is the study of matter at its most basic level. The theory is really many theories including quantum mechanics and quantum field theories. Scientists attempt to explain how a photon becomes electrical current, why Einstein’s special theory of relativity works, and how Schrödinger’s cat can be alive and dead at the same time. And gravity, that does not fall into any quantum category. But when I let go of my pen, it always drops. Always. Drops.
The concepts involved in quantum everything are huge, but the particles, photons, quarks, leptons it describes are all subatomic. They’re the smallest pieces of matter that scientists can describe. They’re invisible. Microscopes are useless. Particle detectors show scientists that they do exist. They know because the subatomic matter affects the material around it.
String theory also tries to find the smallest speck of matter. The theory describes the tiniest pieces of significance. The teeny strings that stretch, bend, wiggle, twist and sometimes do more than one action at a time vibrate together to explain the music of our universe.
The theory of everything tries to explain, in one brilliant mathematical statement, how and why neutrinos, particles, photons, quarks and leptons dance. How and when these one-dimensional objects attract and repel each other. And why? And is our seemingly endless universe made of grains, tinier than sand?
Philosophers, ethicists, moralists, and religious leaders of all stripes are some of the most intelligent people on our Earth. They use history, literature, science, music, and imagination to help us frame questions whose answers help us understand ourselves and each other.
Could the Theory of Everything have anything to do with G?d however we understand that concept?
All is one. Now is all there is. Unity.
I’m reading His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa (Viking, 2022). From the enslaved life his ancestors escaped, to the wealth they built and enjoyed until it was snatched from them, George Floyd’s family story is one of potential denied, dreams stolen, resilience broken. He had the potential to beat the odds, but the odds beat him. Only through his death did Mr. Floyd, “Big George,” achieve his dream to touch the world. It is a story of the universal told through the specific life of one person. The book is a wake up call to action.
-—be curious! (and think big)
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