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Knutsford SciBar - Poetry and Science

In October 2008 Dave Thompson wrote a poem for the "Knutsford Literary Festival -Poetry Night" taking a Proton's view of the experiments at the LHC at CERN. I think you can see why he focussed his life on Science, not Literature. Below is also a poem written by SciBArian Charlotte Peters Rock following the SciBAr Session on "The Holographic Universe" in November 2007 and a poem on Dark Matter by Gerard McCreesh. Some time ago Knutsford SciBAr held an event to celebrate the Arts and the Sciences. Three poems about the SciBar were created and read by the authors:-.Below you will find the three poems by Andrew Rudd, Poet Laureate of Cheshire- Dave Thompson,Founder of Knutsford SciBAr - and Graham Barlow Member of Knutsford SciBAr.The poems were followed by a discussion on Relativity for Dummies led by Professor Jeff Forshaw from Manchester University.

"Knutsford Sci Bar What's it all about? "

A glimmer of light meets an open mind
A path dimly lit for the assembled purblind
Facts and guesses of different kinds
A glimpse of a world with a godless design
Seen clearer,perhaps, through a glass of wine

Quarks neutrinos and leptons we hurl
Smash them together to make them unfurl
A Cosmos ,perhaps, many .. in particular swirls
The x’s and y’s of boys and of girls
The way our brains work and The way of the world

Something may strike us --- And cure we myopes
Veils of distance and size cast aside as we grope
For the answer to everything...within our mind’s scope
Our hands held by “profs “ moving forward with hope
Micron by micron up infinity’s slope

We’re the SciBArians .. in Science’s thrall
We’ve seen the Booth’s adverts and answered the call
We want to learn more, and though we’ll never know it all
We’re getting there, slowly, no more than a crawl
But “ Why, tell me why, is there anything at all ?”

By Dave Thompson - Founder of Knutsford SciBAr

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"Two pints of bitter & a packet of Quarks"

Time ,once, when Science was monotony

I'm sure the teacher had it in for me

Hours in the Lab,dull experiments galore

But I love learning now, it's an open door

But a door to a bar? Is there knowledge there.. beyond idle natter

What's that I hear,... articles , particles,... antimatter

Two pints of bitter and a packet of quarks

But be sure to hand in your feedback remarks

Evey Science known to man is par

From galaxies to genomes at Knutsford SciBAr

Confused, Concerned or just amused we attend

Some light in dark corners, perhaps, by the end

Ice breaker first, Ice Age next

Listen to the guest with their view of the text

Replenish your glass then its over to us

Questions and answers , all things to discuss

Earth's orbit wobbles and leaves answers in cobbles

Search self for soul and all of its troubles

Time passes differently..It's all relative we're told

Immortality looms soon... No need to grow old

Time to go the chairman declares.. but where?

Follow the string ..Another answer there

From Jupiter's moons to comet's tails

I just can't wait for next months travails.

by Graham Barlow -SciBAr Member 2006

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A Proton's view of CERN - October 2008

Be off with you –you rascal ----In poetry I’ll play no part
I can spare no iota of feeling for you and your precious art
For myriads of we protons gather ………. So that the LHC can start
This month the augurs will wonder ……………and worlds will be prised apart

But surely this is fast enough to fly along this tunnel
And every time that I pass “GO” ….. in more of us they funnel
You want to see the Big Bang??? ………… Well why on earth didn’t you say?
Cos I was there and then ,you know ….. I saw it !!!… and much else along the way

It is a very long time ago ……….14.6 billion years
But I can still remember when my quarks were free ,……….the charming little dears
It wasn’t for long.. but it was worth it ……as they freely danced around
But the temperature fell so quickly… and soon…. there they were…. all bound.

But now, just look what’s happening as round and round we fly
Not a bit of scenery , just concrete …. as we go sailing by
And instead of behaving politely …Every time we pass
Someone yanks up the voltage…… and gives us a kick up the ass………I ask you

HEY ! How fast do you really want us to go? …. As fast as the speed of light ?
I’m not a massless photon , you know …. You’ll give all my quarks a fright
I do like magnetic fields, though ………….they give my charge a lift
And riding on their waves like this ….. we are definitely starting to shift

It is getting very boring now …..whirling round this ring
And where have all my mates gone …. The electrons and neutrons and things
Whats THAT ! ……I just saw Johnny …. He was once in an atom with me
But now he’s really hurtling ….round this same old loop ,I see

“HEY !! Wait a minute Johnny !......................You’re going the wrong way round”
Oh I forgot – it’s a vacuum ……he can’t hear me… There is no sound
This is a lower vacuum than any you’d get in space
And believe me…. at less than one degree A ……. it’s colder than any other place

Johnny had better be careful …..to keep to his own side
The speed we two are travelling ……..if he moves off track we’ll collide
Somebody’s moved off track !!! ….. I detect a commotion ahead
I hope they’ve cleared off when I get there……. or all of us are dead

Look ! There’s Johnny again ……….... “ Get out of the way …you nit !!!”
If he gets any nearer next time …..We really are in the sh*t
And here he is again ….. He’s heading straight for me
He’s really moving fast now ….. Has he swallowed some photons for tea

LOOK OUT !! -- LOOK OUT !! -- We’ve had it !!!! ………. and BANG !!! ……
…Now what do I see ?
If I could shift all these pesky HIGGS’s …. I might get a look at me
I’m burst … I’m split asunder !! …… It’s just like a wonderful dream
The Ancient BIG BANG all around us … the real me with my quarks ……….. What a team !

By Dave Thompson - Founder of Knutsford SciBAr

Knutsford SciBAr Session-"All About Memory"
By Andrew Rudd Cheshire Poet laureate

A lost memory
is ringing, ringing, somewhere
behind the bar. Will someone answer it
please.

What were you doing?
What was the weather like?
What were you thinking about on that day?

A candle was burning, your wine
lay red in the glass. Pigeons were
bobbing into the gap, under the eaves
of the opposite windows. A pint
clunked on the table. I remember
how good you were at digits.

How does it all link together
the space, and the smell, and the word?
A herdsman’s skill, a kitten blind
in the blinding dark.

Do you know that you don’t know?
Can your brain be hard-wired to remember?
Can you be trained to forget? I knocked
on a door, a door that wouldn’t open.

How does it all link together
the space, and the smell, and the word?
A herdsman’s skill, a kitten blind
in the blinding dark.

Her research is in memory
for faces. She scans the crowd.
She takes a sip, nods, looks intently
at the questioner, hands crossed in her lap.
Actually knowing that you’ve seen
a face before. It’s stored
as a configuration, something resilient
that doesn’t change with age.

How does it all link together
the space, and the smell, and the word?
A herdsman’s skill, a kitten blind
in the blinding dark.

In a Parallel Universe

Do I exist - or only think I do?
And is the universe reality? - Or no?
How can I tell?

If I believe that someone else
Can feed the truth to my imagination
Is that true?

With thoughts of mine can I invent
My self - and then a universe - then someone else
To explain?

Why bother - when I populate my waking?
If that is what it is - Why continue
With some one?

Which one would have more knowledge?
Would the someone sit inside my head? - Do I
Have a head?

If so - how many people line the crowded space?
If space it is? - Is it space? - If space - where is
Existence?

Is existence anything at all? - Or nothing?
What is nothing? - In the parallel - is
Nothing new?

Or then - did it once exist - this nothing?
How? In the parallel? - Parallel to what?
Anything?

How can parallel be as it is?
If only it exists - alone - would a parallel
Know - or mind?

"Interference between two jets of light" *
Is that unreally what we are?
Holograph?

If holograph? - Are you a figment of imagination?
Not mine, for I am also - if you are a figment -
Only thought?

Jets of light? Do they exist?
And where is interference from? - Or
Universe?

Written by SciBArian Charlotte Peters Rock. Nov 2007

following a talk by Dr Radu Tatar from Liverpool University on " The Holographic Universe"

Croatian sky- Musings on holiday

Why do the stars that sparkle so
suffused with incandescent glow
retain their allocated spot
in heaven's vast celestial plot?

It’s gravity that we are told
that to their points the stars do hold
Gravity’s unseen unheard
it holds the stars just take my word

Fritz Zwicki did his press ups
but retained his train of thought
there is insufficient matter
for the stars to so disport

If all galactic mass were summed
the stars would be so spry
like corks upon a restless sea
they’d bob about the sky

Was it effort or exertion
that drove him to this claim
or a cool enquiring nature
or are they just the same?

There must be extra matter
that floats around in space
Black holes of swirling darkness
that hold the stars in place

Next time you see a starlit sky
and marvel at the scene
remember it’s the holes that bind
and not the stars between

Written by Gerard McCreesh re Dark Matter and Black Holes

- Comments on the Knutsford SciBAr by ANDREW RUDD - CHESHIRE POET LAUREATE - JULY 2006
A fascinating session at SciBAr last night. On a sweltering July night, about fifty people crammed into a back room of a bar in Knutsford to hear an account of relativity – a talk followed by a question time which was challenging and wide-ranging. Professor Jeff Forshaw (from Manchester University and CERN) gave a jaw-dropping account of the implications of Einstein’s theories in plain English.
It’s really exciting that so many people care enough about ideas to form groups like this. More info about SciBAr: ( www.knutsford-scibar.co.uk ) In Macclesfield they have started a ‘Literary and Philosophical Society’ which will have meetings in the Library in the Autumn. This will have a similar agenda of encouraging discussion of ideas, although its brief will be much wider than SciBAr. I hope to present a talk for them on Science and Poetry.
I was at SciBAr to bring a poem I’d written after an earlier session on ‘All about Memory’ – so this was a fairly rare conjunction between poetry and science. Here are a few first thoughts on the issue – and the poem:
Poetry and Science are two ways of looking at the world. Like science, poetry investigates experience, presents the data.
A poem is not just the observation, the results of the experiment – a poem is itself a repeatable experiment in the field of language. When you read a poem – if it works – the experience of the writer happens all over again. There’s ‘a shock of recognition’ I get it!
Science strives for accuracy. A poem makes room for, even encourages, ambiguity. The poet is trying to hit a moving target, directing the flow of a river which is always bursting its banks. Poetry has a sense that experience is bigger than the words we try to shoehorn it into, but that, if we get the words right, then that experience can be communicated.
The poet may be closely observing a particular experience, but the poem takes the data out of context. In the poem it can ‘fit’ all kinds of other experiences. The experience may be local, particular – the poem can be universal.
Wordsworth’s ‘Daffodils’ is not, first of all, about daffodils: it’s about the recovery of sensory data.

Andrew Rudd's Home page......Andrews Blog

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