The prompt for the 29th day of National Poetry Month comes from Beth Ayer, senior editor at Found Poetry Review, and what an interesting challenge it is! Here’s what she asks:

The Prompt

In the spirit of heading into darkness after all things unseeable and obscure, write a poem using a text that is inexplicable to you. Could be quantum physics, thermodynamics, mathematics, aeronautical engineering – or something else altogether that to you speaks in incomprehensible language. Choose a text or texts and begin selecting words and phrases as they spark associations. Write a poem using the collected words and phrases. Let your imagination fire, and don’t worry about what these terms mean in their original context.  You can read the entire post and find links to other poet’s poems here:http://www.foundpoetryreview.com/blog/impromptu-29-beth-ayer/

So, seems straightforward, but I couldn’t think of a topic and I’m already a day behind. I grabbed my Dictionary of Science, only to at last see the subtitle: “Scientific Terms Explained in Everyday Language”.  I thought it might still work, so I opened it randomly. “Heart Attack.”– well, no!  I think that’s not quite in the spirit of this challenge.  Then I spotted Entropy.  Knowing how my brain shuts down at the mere whisper of “Physics” I thought it might work but once into a first draft, I realized neither Entropy nor choice 2, Plate Tectonics, were working by using this dictionary or the first poem.  But here it is because it comes in again later:

The Entropy of Plate Tectonics

Everyday language, untranslatable.
Suppose a water drop, falling
from the spinning arm of dishwasher
reaches entropy.
In its dying moments it
oscillates, unstable, jealous of the big bang.

Precipitates sympathetic movement
in not-quite-dry dishes. Proximity
takes over,  and the plates succumb,
but the friction dissipates the drop.
In the cupboard, the china shifts,
a clatter as dinner plates slide from the shelves
to shatter on the floor in a vibration of electrons.
while the drop dries up, whimpering.

Is this plate tectonics at maximum entropy?

Carol A. Stephen, April 30, 2016

So, I chose two short pieces from Wikipedia, one on entropy, one on plate tectonics. I wanted to use a tool to remix the source text, but word.camera is not available right now, but fortunately Amanda Earl had used one which reminded me about The Lazarus Corporation Cut-up/Mixing Tool.

The first poem from that source

Remixing the Entropy of Plates

Non-isolated by a motion
the new seafloor transfer of heat
can be used by its own kind of crust,
convergent, reversible or irreversible,
Is reversible or irreversible.

The third law underlying asthenosphere:

• density variations of a pure plate of entropy
  the globe remains crust, broken
  topped by its τεκτονικός “

The seafloor, spreading a relative conveyor belt
of force and drag by tidal forces of the Sun, lies.

Measure molecular disorder, the amount of lithosphere,
of the globe. Thick tectonic plates are spreading
the change that information changes:

• the  joules per kelvin, given its T,
  is the absolute temperature of need
  the physical dimension of energy
  is the shell of a Moon.

Where plates meet,
convergent, divergent, or transform.
Converge, diverge, or transform,
the lithosphere is rigid zero to 100.
The final condition.
Whimper.

Carol A. Stephen, April 30, 2016

Ok, so yeah, just ok.  But I wanted something else, the off-the-wall moving away from original meaning kind of poem.  So I took both poems and ran them together through the remix tool.  I did some editing to carve out the final poem here:

 

The Molecular Whimper Oscillates

 

Crust, topped by its broken shell of a Moon.
Of a Moon.  Where plates crust,
converge from shelves to shatter on the floor
in a vibration, jealous of the big bang.
The big bang,  precipitates its dying moments.
It oscillates, unstable.
Oscillates. Whimper.
The entropy of plate seafloor
transfer of heat can be relative.
Convey force. Change that information changes:
the joules Tectonics language, untranslatable.
Everyday language, untranslatable.

Suppose thick tectonic plates are spreading the arm.
Dishwasher reaches entropy in water drop, falling
from the spinning clatter as dinner plates slide τεκτονικός ”
The seafloor is In the cupboard,
the china shifts, used by its own kind, takes over,
and the plates succumb, non-isolated by a motion.
The new whimpering. The new whimpering.
Is this plate tectonics, density variations of
a pure plate of entropy diverge, transform,
the absolute temperature of need., the sympathetic
movement in not-quite-dry dishes.
In proximity.

While the drop dries up, rigid zero to 100. Zero to 100.
The final friction dissipates the lithosphere.  The globe.
Reversible or irreversible. Reversible or irreversible.
The tidal forces of the Sun lie. The Sun, lies.
Measure molecular disorder, the.
Molecular disorder, the.

Carol A. Stephen
April 30, 2016