Last week I shared the poem After Reading a Child's Guide to Modern Physics by W.H. Auden. I'm still thinking about physics and poetry this week.
Cartoon Physics, part 1
by Nick Flynn
Children under, say, ten, shouldn't know
that the universe is ever-expanding,
inexorably pushing into the vacuum, galaxies
swallowed by galaxies, whole
solar systems collapsing, all of it
acted out in silence. At ten we are still learning
the rules of cartoon animation,
Read the poem in its entirety.
If you haven't been here before, or haven't been following my National Poetry Month project, here are the posts from this week. Feel free to poke around.
24 - Sky Awareness Week
25 - World Penguin Day
26 - Richter Scale Day
27 - Babe Ruth Day
28 - National Blueberry Pie Day
29 - Arbor Day
I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Buffy Silverman at Buffy's Blog. Happy poetry Friday friends!
Love the image of the child with the roof on the hand of the school bus..I guess the illusion of control is one of the gifts of our imaginations?
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this poem. I hadn't come across it before and it's now one I'm pondering.
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed. It makes me kind of sad sometimes, teaching 5th grade science. Explaining the mysteries of the world. At the same time, the power of knowledge is intoxicating at that age, and so the teeter-totter balances. We'll call this "Science Education, Part 1"
ReplyDeleteSo true. I always felt that I was stripping my middle school kids of that last bit of innocence in pulling back the curtain on the mystery. Though watching the lightbulbs go on was always fun.
Delete