Love is like the Higgs-Boson

[brianedwards]

Love is like the Higgs-Boson

Use that in a poem
if you dare she teased,
straightening my tie.

Which was all well
and good, except
I hadn't heard
a word she'd said
and then
she upped and left,

her lipstick stain
on a menthol tip,
smoke prettying
the canvas
of her lungs.








~

[lemonstar]

I was wondering if the sci.poets here would have a "field" day with this topic and I think that is a great reason to write poetry anyway - to capture or document a moment like this. It's a very appealing little poem - especially like the last 3 lines.

Edit - forgot to say - it seems to capture the two ideas, the quantum vacuum and love - with tiny, transient bits of evidence spontaneously appearing (and disappearing) out of- and into- nothing.

[David]

I don't understand the Higgs boson - so I found this (http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/ ... -explained) useful - but even now I don't understand how the poem relates to it.

I do like the last three lines, though.

Cheers

David

[Arian]

I suppose part of the "problem" with the title is that we (well, I, but I suspect I'm representative of the majority here) get used to the idea that the title somehow is the poem, it captures the essence of the piece, reduces its message to a word or two. The title is the poem's alter ego, not it, exactly, but speaking for it. The poem's voice in shortform.

Here, you've - perfectly legitimately, but quite unusually - broken that convention, by using the title as an intro, a kicking-off point to another theme. In this sense, deliberately or not, but I suspect deliberately, you've added a poetic dimension - challenged conventional perception.

In the hands of the amateur, "breaking convention" is as ugly as it is self-defeating. But you're no amateur, and I sense calucaltion behind the piece. And I like it.

On the other hand, of course, you could be talking about the HB. In which case, que?

cheers
peter

[Raincoat]

yes I thought the same lines about the title - and enjoyed it too, again challenging expectations and I agree this has been nicely done. and is the HB in the teasing aspect - i.e. been teasing the scientists who are trying to find it, and in the "up and left" line - i.e. how the minute you think you've traced it, then it's gone.. then finally the stain on her lungs - the data imagery they're looking at now trying to analyse whether it is the HB and in return the N is analysing their love, although in a playful way? lots of layers and really dynamic, enjoyed very much.

[Vincent Turner]

Hi Brian.

I have to be honest and say the majority of the poem passed me by.

I did however enjoy the last part- reminded me of an ending of a film.

This is not to say the poem has no merit merely that it did not trigger an response which yours so often do.

I am probably missing something, and it is more than likely the link of the title and poem.

Just my thoughts.

Best Regards

Vincent

P.s- Do you drive/ can you drive?

[OwenEdwards]

Well, I quite enjoyed this. It did engender a response from me - a whimsical smile, if that's appropriate. I could make a warm comparison to a Wendy Cope poem but I won't .

[k-j]

Yes, it is quite Wendy Cope-ish. Everybody needs a boson for a pillow? Last five lines are very pretty.

[Bloggsworth]

Like everything about it but the title, which is nowhere near as good as the poem, and **** is like ***** is an 'orrible way to start because you look for the similarities when you should be reading the poem - And as someone who has been married for 40 years, I can assure you that it is nowhere near as transient!

[Tim Love]

Like everything about it but the title, which is nowhere near as good as the poem

I thought the title was what "Use that in a poem if you dare" referred to.

[twoleftfeet]

Like everything about it but the title, which is nowhere near as good as the poem

I thought the title was what "Use that in a poem if you dare" referred to.

Hah! That's what I thought - until I thought about it! (line 6&7)

Excellent Brian - it puts me in mind of that geeky character in The Big Bag Theory, just substitute "poet" for "scientist".

Geoff

[brianedwards]

Thanks all, and apologies for the late response. So, some of you like it, some of you don't; it could be about the HB and then again it might not; the title is and isn't linked to the poem . . . I think my work is done!
Wendy Cope though? Bloody hell, that confuses me more than particle physics.

B.

[Ros]

I liked. Enjoyed the dual meaning of 'use that...'. Not sure about smoke prettying lungs, though - rather unPC thing to think nowadays!

Ros