Poetry Hut Blog

Poetry News Saturday SCIENCE! edition:

1. — Being an athlete or merely a fan improves language skills when it comes to discussing their sport because parts of the brain usually involved in playing sports are instead used to understand sport language —
2. — “It’s probably no coincidence that many languages around the world have repetitious syllables in their ‘child words’ – baby and daddy in English, papa in Italian and tata (grandpa) in Hungarian, for example” —
3. — There are numerous examples in our daily language of metaphors which make a connection between cold temperatures and emotions such as loneliness, despair and sadness [fixed link] —
4. — Neuroaesthetics promises to reinvigorate science’s search for a theory of beauty —
5. — New Life For Middle English: Norwegian Detective Work Gives New Knowledge Of The English Language —
6. — By the end of the century, the two disciplines were officially divorced and poetry was deemed the worst way in which to express scientific knowledge —

Poetry News new Saturday SCIENCE! edition:

1. — Computers figuring out what words mean —
2. — From cartilage to fruit-fly wings, physicist studies ’squishiness’ in everyday things —
3. — Please submit a 5 line poem by Monday, September 22 at 3pm (Japan Standard Time). [Space Poem Chain Vol. 5: JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency] —
4. — Scientists watch as listener’s brain predicts speaker’s words —
5. — Although readers keep shifting to the Internet, Esquire magazine’s editor is sure print isn’t dying, and he aims to prove it Monday by unveiling a 75th-anniversary issue with a cover that features electronic ink. —
6. — A Université Laval research team has demonstrated that intellectual work induces a substantial increase in calorie intake —
7. — People who react more strongly to bumps in the night, spiders on a human body or the sight of a shell-shocked victim are more likely to support public policies that emphasize protecting society over preserving individual privacy —

I had no idea that I really don’t have the slightest idea where my body is, in space, LOL. I always knew I was (putting it kindly) nonathletic, but this is me in physical therapy: “Am I doing it right? Like this?”
PT: “Uhm. Ack. Not that far.”
Me: “Geez, I’m such a dork, haha.”
PT: “Aw, no you’re not.”
Me: “It’s OK; I accept that I’m a dork haha.”

I’m almost maxed out on PT appointments. >:(

The Reanimation of Ted Williams’ Frozen Head

It is almost imperceptible — the twinkle of ice rime thawing
in an interior steel room filled with exaggerated gases,
near a regal super-neuro-unificator machine.

Everything is silent but for a discontinuous tinkling,
which means the enfolding of the field begins,
which is a prognostication of the heft of the bat,

which means science is in the catbird seat,
conquering the poke and stir of ashes,
so the scientists all incant: whosoever

liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
The super-neuro-unificator goes “ding”
and Ted Williams’ head twitches, and

Ted Williams’ head opens his eyes,
and the scientists all step forward,
and the scientists peer down

like Zeuses. They ask: tell us how
it was, when the air was good,
and tell us about baseball

and green grass Sundays of
left field. Please do
begin.

I haven’t posted a poem/draft here in … forever. So here’s a newish one from last month. My poetic output has been slim for a while, due to not feeling too hot, but I’m starting to feel better. I’m pretty slow and picky during the best of times, anyway. Bishopian, even. (I recently took apart my book manuscript & halved it to chapbook size.)

I keep taking the first stanza of this poem out, putting it back in, taking it out, putting it back in, standing back, squinting, taking it out again, putting it back in again.

Also, I’ve come to the conclusion that I think that ding in quotes:

“ding”

is somehow funnier than ding in italics:

ding

But maybe it is just me, LOL.

ps Ted Williams for non-baseball fans. Also, no news this weekend. And no weekend news for the rest of the summer probably. Have a good weekend.