Looking back over the past nine months of ^zhurnalling reveals
some eighteen occasional ^z attempts at verse (see links below). Why would an (ex)physicist write a poem? Perhaps because among other things poetry offers:

• data compression — packing more meaning into fewer bits
• stochasticity — escaping from determinism via apparent randomness
• pattern discovery — revealing new relationships among sound,
  rhyme, rhythm, and concept
  ... or maybe it's just fun to try, and fail, in new ways.

The individual works exhibit a variety of styles and themes; an
asterisk in the listing indicates an exceptionally short piece (often
humorous), and a plus is a longer one.
(I tend to like the more recent efforts better, but I'm biased.)
In chronological order, they are:

• TradeOffs ... contrasting meanings *
• ColorChains ... hues & time
• CaveThought ... geo-mind
• DownDangerDrive ... risky behavior +
• UncivilServants ... bureaucracy *
• PyramidPeaking ... celebrity-worship *
• RightAndLevel ... justice +
• IncomParable ... isolation *
• TheAscent ... togetherness *
• HighGlider ... satellite imagery
• SuburbanDeer ... four-legged locusts
• CosmicContext ... large-scale evolution +
• AwaitingNess ... early morning *
• SunDance ... street scene +
• VidIocy ... gaming *
• LifeLines ... biographic trajectories +
• InfraStructure ... servants +
• SevenManes ... hair

Or see them all in "http://www.his.com/~z/zpoems01.html", volume 0.01 of ^z's collected poems. Happy Valentine's Day!

Wednesday, February 14, 2001 at 07:42:19 (EST) = 2001-02-14

TopicPoetry

(correlates: BlindFaith, WikiIsIt, OnIrreducibility, ...)