shad­ow­graph 1: imag­in­ing the earth
(poetry detected in hen­drik lorentz’s nobel physics lec­ture, 1902)


the present day? ‘in the mind’s case…’ the pro­grammed air. the out­shone sun. end–
less study: the room’s must… the cor­re­spond­ing silence. sci­ence investigating

its own cir­cum­stances? the mag­netic can. (men rais­ing triplets.) light grain, beam
split­ting. search nar­row­ing: ether in mind. lan­guage suc­ceed­ing who? math: talk

cut short. (rapid typ­ing…) liq­uid bod­ies. the X-​​rayed page? sci­en­tific method: nature
bound to say. (‘the enlight­en­mentTM axiomatic…’) small world: thought’s neg­a­tive. life’s

long way to come. don’t panic? draw­ing back the light… titanic: the mind’s tip. after–
math: the tram­pled earth. ‘nature’? ether clear­ing… the run­away street. sat–

isfied equa­tions. the indexed breeze. iron rain­bows. ultra­vi­o­lets. pretty pic­ture? horse–
drawn men. all time local. build­ing blocks? atomic foun­da­tion… (body: parts) key–

stone corpse. poetic method, salt from light… mea­sured words. the world’s
point? the unimag­in­able mind. the felt wind. staunched shadow. science’s matter–

horn. (absence weigh­ing…) göt­tin­gen: light leaves the trees. spun lines. earth: mov­ing
machine. the doz­ing bull. god’s splits. paths block­ing the way… sepia ether. sha–

mankind. waves packed in ice. music’s pro­gramme? the remain­dered day.




peace move­ment (main-​​à-​​dieu, n.s.)

child’s–
eye, sun fold–
ing,       lan–
terns        in
the

bay



– by Sean Howard


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Sean Howard moved to Nova Scotia from England in 1999. His poetry has been pub­lished in Canadian jour­nals includ­ing Geist, Other Voices, Quills, Prairie Journal, The Antigonish Review, The Nashwaak Review and Prairie Fire as well as zafusy (UK) and 4AM Poetry Review (USA). Sean holds a Ph.D in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford, UK, and is adjunct pro­fes­sor of polit­i­cal sci­ence at Cape Breton University, pur­su­ing research inter­ests in nuclear dis­ar­ma­ment and the phi­los­o­phy of sci­ence. A recent paper — ‘Very Different Butterflies’: The Scope for Deep Complementarity Between Western and Native American Science’ — was pub­lished in ‘The Pari Dialogues: Essays in Science, Religion, Society and the Arts’ (Pari Publishing, 2007). To view some more of Sean’s poetry on-​​line, visit www.zafusy.org/poetry/seanhoward.

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Copyright© 2008, by Sean Howard and Spinozablue. All Rights Reserved.

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