From the Latest Reports

I read a lot more "science" blogs and mags lately, being very interested since last year's visit from Acharya Jeremy Hayward in this "language" we all speak: science. Or rather, an adaptation of science, a development of cultural laws and rules that rule us every day without our noticing it. I'm not talking about the fundamentalists of science: the determinists and Richard Dawkins feverent anti-God world; however, the way science interacts with us from an early age is a form of fundamentalism. Physics, biology, chemistry: these claim, through the guise of sixth grade teachers, to answer it all.

Most scientists I know in person realize this is far from the case - having ventured far afield and back again they can see how the more you learn the less you know, and experiments show this more to them than even to poets. This poem, which came to me spontanenously this morning (which is rare, usually I don't think in poetry anymore, ironic since my first book of poetry is due out in two weeks), addresses no one critically and all of us ironically. After all, I believe it's not the "nature" of science to be problematic, no, rather the cultural demand of it to answer questions that gets us into trouble.


"From the Latest Reports"

Scientists say the snow is impermanent,
That dogs will die (especially on dog days),
Those dearest to you become nearest, then farthest
As they fade off memory and into infinity.

Research seems to support
That sounds as loud as Sawsalls
Will disturb your morning writing and
Frighten the cats into friskiness.

The latest data enumerates
The hours of sleep you got last night
(And especially the quality)
Were disrupted by dreams of failure as clear as memory.

What scientists cannot elucidate
Is how the sparrows entertain themselves,
Whizzing past your window in lines
Or how the crocuses know where to find the sun.