Poeta Doctus

Poetry is news that stays news, as a famous poet-critic observed, and sometimes said news might even be prescient. One of the first texts I wrote on arriving in Montreal, in 1986-7, concerned the manner of experimental device that has just proven so instrumental in the most recent earth (if not cosmos!) shaking discovery in physics. Therefore, as a humble gesture in honour of 4 July 2012, I append said text below, one section of the “title track” from my first book, Grand Gnostic Central (DC Books, 1998).

In recent decades, a radical cell of sculptors and conceptual artists has infiltrated the scientific research community.  As “physicists”, they have managed to have governments construct massive installations, dumbfounding in the intricate rigor of their design, to generate experimental data in a manner consistent with the most demanding mathematical scientific method.  Some see these “particle accelerators” as communal accomplishments the order of Stonehenge, the Pyramids, or the Great Cathedrals.