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I've always been fond of Albert Goldbarths' "Budget Travel Through Time and Space". He's an old timer with modern sensibilities, narratives that criss-cross era
by wishinghand 12y ago
I've always been fond of Albert Goldbarths' "Budget Travel Through Time and Space". He's an old timer with modern sensibilities, narratives that criss-cross eras with ease and a cosmological perspective. Science is inflected in a lot of his work.
"The Sciences Sing a Lullabye"
Physics says: go to sleep. Of course
you’re tired. Every atom in you
has been dancing the shimmy in silver shoes
nonstop from mitosis to now.
Quit tapping your feet. They’ll dance
inside themselves without you. Go to sleep.
Geology says: it will be all right. Slow inch
by inch America is giving itself
to the ocean. Go to sleep. Let darkness
lap at your sides. Give darkness an inch.
You aren’t alone. All of the continents used to be
one body. You aren’t alone. Go to sleep.
Astronomy says: the sun will rise tomorrow,
Zoology says: on rainbow-fish and lithe gazelle,
Psychology says: but first it has to be night, so
Biology says: the body-clocks are stopped all over town
and
History says: here are the blankets, layer on layer, down and down.
- schoen 12y agoIt's a lot more metaphorical and more fanciful but there's "Evolution" by Langdon Smith: https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/int/evolution.html https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/int/evolution.html When you were a tadpole and I was a fish In the Paleozoic time, And side by side on the ebbing tide We sprawled through the ooze and slime, Or skittered with many a caudal flip Through the depths of the Cambrian fen, My heart was rife with the joy of life, For I loved you even then. [...]
- wishinghand 12y agoHow do I format text like that on HN? Use <pre> tags?
- schoen 12y agoTwo spaces in front of each line should work. One space is not enough, Yet two suffice.