Science and poetry are perfect partners. Here’s why:
Poetry can warm up cold, analytical scientific concepts. It can add comfort, emotion, humor and imagination — flesh and blood — to the scientific bones. For example, the subject of magnetism might seem daunting or dull to some. But if a poet focuses on one tiny magnet, writes about it in a way that we all recognize, and then takes an unexpected imaginative leap, magnetism is suddenly fascinating.
Magnet
by Valerie Worth
This small
Flat horseshoe
Is sold for
A toy: we are
Told that it
Will pick up pins
And it does, time
After time; later
It lies about,
Getting its red
Paint chipped, being
Offered pins less
Often, until at
Last we leave it
Alone: then
It leads its own
Life, trading
Secrets with
The North Pole,
Reading
Invisible messages
From the sun.
Poetry can provide a bridge to scientific concepts, which aren’t always easily grasped. Poets can also offer valuable insights into science that may be lost on everyone else. Poets and scientists have different standards for what is “truth” even though both love and study the natural world.
Karla Kuskin wrote this lovely “bridge” to the idea that we can’t feel the earth revolving around the sun at mind-boggling speeds because we are moving at precisely the same pace.
The flower’s on the bird
which is underneath the bee
and the bird is on the kitten
on the cat on me.
I’m on a chair
on some grass
on a lawn
and the lawn is on a meadow
and the world is what it’s on.
And all of us together
when the day is nearly done
like to sit and watch the weather
as we spin around the sun.
–Karla Kuskin
To make sense of life and our humanity, we need poetic as well as scientific explanations and interpretations. Scientists and poets look at things that other people see, and see something totally different. It’s valuable to hear both interpretations.
Rolling hills are well-eroded landforms to geologists. To Barbara Esbensen they are something else when they’re covered with snow. Here is an excerpt of one of her poems:
December Hills
by Barbara Esbensen
White fur
grows thick on the backs
of those green
those brown those
grassy old animals
the hills.
Poetry needs to address the issues of our day to stay relevant — that includes science. Pluto was demoted recently to a dwarf planet. Douglas Florian must have found this bit of science news amusing and worthy of his attention. This poem is from Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings.
Pluto
by Douglas Florian
Pluto was a planet.
But now it doesn’t pass.
Pluto was a planet.
They say it’s lacking mass.
Pluto was a planet.
Pluto was admired.
Pluto was a planet.
Till one day it got fired.
If you’re still a little unsure of how to put your arms around both science and poetry, here is a list of science poetry starters and a few examples pulled from my own experience and my own books:
A fascinating scientific fact
- massive mountains do not last forever; they wear down and disappear
- the continents used to be joined together, not spread apart
A scientific or natural wonder
- The full moon always rises around the time the sun is setting–beautiful!
- volcanic islands like the Hawaiian islands grow from cracks in the earth’s crust
A point of curiosity or confusion
- how do migrating birds find their way back and forth?
- how does the earth’s spin affect the earth’s winds?
A favorite animal or plant
- great blue herons
- lady’s slippers
- oak trees
- chickadees
Historical figure in science
- Albert Einstein — can’t learn enough about him
- Charles Darwin — a very curious guy for his entire life
- Galileo — not sure I would have liked him
Emotional connection or reaction to science/nature
- in three and a half billion years, life on earth has never once fizzled out, an awe-inspiring fact
- the images from the Hubble space telescope never fail to astonish me
Personal observation
- marine fossils at the top of a 9,000-foot mountain
- mushrooms that spring up overnight
- the moons of Jupiter through my brother-in-law’s telescope
Science in the news
- earthquakes at Yellowstone National Park
- meteorites that give us more clues about the origin of our solar system
- new plant and animal species
- plant and animal species going extinct
