The first stanza is from a poem by Howard Nemerov titled “To The Congress Of The United States, Entering Its Third Century”




The First Scientist

 “praise without end for the go-ahead zeal

of whoever it was invented the wheel;

but never a word for the poor soul’s sake

that thought ahead, and invented the brake.”

 

And it occurs to me that what this ‘poor soul’

Really invented was the prescient consideration

Of consequences . . . the realization that every

Action compels an equal and opposite reaction.

 

The scientific method by which he observed

The empirical proof that a body in motion

Tends to stay in motion, until it meets up

With another body that's at rest, like a tree.

 

The painful learning that what goes around

Will come around and with unwitting results.

The simple and profound and certain truth

That nothing is ever only what one intends.





Poetry by countryfog
Read 650 times
Written on 2011-05-25 at 03:23

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Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
Having reached a certain age, I am sure that the one who invented the wheel was very young, while the one who invented the brake was older. Heedlessness can produce unfortunate results, but knowing caution can prevent anything from happening. This is why, even in mathematics and the natural sciences, it is said that, as theorists, people over forty are washed up.
2011-05-30


Rob Graber
This is very stimulating! I do not believe, however, that the psychological roots of political conservatism lie in thoughtful foresight or in accurate assessment of the dangers of unintended consequences. After all, doing nothing is as likely to have unintended consequences as doing something! But then caveat emptor: I am a dyed-in-the-wool liberal!

Again, an enormously stimulating, condensed text!
2011-05-25