I wasn’t sure what to do for my 100 Days Of Poetry this year, and then Stephen Hawking died. So now I’m doing 100 poems about science. Note, I am not a scientist. Peer review is strongly encouraged: let me know if I get the sciences wrong.
(Also Happy Birthday to me. And Einstein.)
You told us how the stars bend time and space
Around them, and we tried to visualise
A rubber sheets with weights on it, in place
Of what we couldn’t see behind your eyes.
You said black holes were once assumed to be
So powerful that nothing could get out
But you had looked, and found that you could see
Some particles escaping. Who could doubt
Your word? We knew you saw beyond the stars
And tried to show us what, to you, was plain,
To reach down and enlighten minds like ours
From your great height: it must have been a strain.
You’ve left us slightly wiser, in the end:
Gazing at stars we almost comprehend.
Tom Juniper Poetry 