I thought I would post my found poem from class last night since it's more of a visual experience.
(KNew)clear
T
his beca
me the Rad
ium Institute. It had two sect
ions: the Cur(i)e
Labor
atory,
head
ed by Marie Curie and en
tire
ly de(a)d
icated to re
search in physics and chemis
try...de
vote
d
to the study of the bio
logical and med
ical effects of
radio
act
ivity.
The material for this found poem was taken from my research on Marie Curie's contributions to nuclear medicine. I emphasized several aspects of her legacy within this poem, notably the challenges she faced as a female scientist (his versus me), the radical nature of her work, the years of devotion to research (labor, tire, search, try, logical), and how she integrated her scientific findings into practical medical applications (Cure, act). I also tried to capture the physical consequences of her work (head, dead). The title of the poem is a play on the word nuclear, emphasizing its revolutionary aspect as well as the notion of knowing and discovery.
My favorite part involves the last two bold words of the poem: logical act. To me this poem speaks of the acts of curing, laboring, searching, and trying as the logical things to do and as our duty to humankind. Beautiful poem, Aya. Thanks for posting it. It makes me think of the actions I take as an individual and my motives for taking them.
ReplyDeleteThank you Aya, this is clever and evocative. The enjambment of the words and breakdown of the syllables capture the multiplicity of Curie's experience, or perhaps the experience of any scientist who moves forward in the great promise of discovery. There are always unintended consequences; duality percolates under the surface. I like Cat's succinct response: actions and motives.
ReplyDeleteAya great poem! Your creativity in the use of punctuation and play on words was amazing! After reading the poem a few times I started to think about the intention of Curie’s work versus the way it was utilized. After her work in discovering these rays, she obviously made point to use it for the betterment of society, i.e. portable x-ray machines, etc. On the other hand in some ways her work also ultimately lead to the creation of the atomic bomb. So my question is, do you feel that Marie would have felt guilty for her discovery had she known what it ultimately would have lead to? In a bigger question, do we as scientists have a responsibility to research both the larger scientific and social impacts of our work before it is shared? Or are we obligated to make it readily available to the public as soon as the discovery has been made? Slightly off topic here, sorry, but your poem just got my gears turning!
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