Poems, Uncategorized

Expanding Universe Haiku

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The winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics are three American scientists who asked some important questions and wound up getting answers they didn’t expect.

Hubble's snapshot of the backyard, courtesy of NASA

As a result they gave us this confounding image of a universe that is expanding rapidly, with stars and galaxies rushing away from the center at ever-increasing speeds.

How’s that?

For folks (like me) who write news stories and summaries, Nobel week is a challenge and an education. In trying to explain how a prize was won, we’re called on to distill and decipher other people’s complicated multi-million-dollar research. Do you really think I can, with little knowledge or understanding of the field, step in and do a better job explaining a major technical principle in fewer words than the scientist who has spent his or her life struggling with the same information?

Some topics don’t like to be compressed.

But try I must. So why not take it all the way down to the minimum? Here’s a challenge – boil the expanding universe down to three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second, and five in the third.

Go.

Galaxies racing
faster away from center
Mama will be pissed.

Dark Energy is
The unseen motivator
Behind the madness

The whole universe
Receding away from you
It’s not personal

The      spaces        between
the       words      in      this        haiku       are
bigger.          What’s             up,                          huh?

Leave your own haiku, or just explain how the universe will end.

68 thoughts on “Expanding Universe Haiku”

      2. Thank you for turning my prose into haiku, which my mind is not capable of doing with no rest.
        I think we need a new theory since strong theory is in jeopardy. I say the new theory is(drum roll) nematode theory

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      4. I think black walnuts are a source of black energy. They’re making me feel quite dark lately.

        Black walnuts do fall
        Nematoids in their dark husks
        Oh my aching back.

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    1. pointing out stillness
      when others are kicking ass
      life can be simple

      my brain works just fine
      in its own arean
      this is not that spot

      baboon conversation
      hits interesting topics
      this is one of them

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  12. OT Here is info about a show that the Orange Mighty Trio is putting on tonight. I hope you don’t mind my posting of infromation about OMT performances. I can’t resist doing this because, as most of you know, OMT includes Zack Kline who is my son-in-law. I heard this score at a festival this summer and I think the score is very good and so is the movie.

    There are still tickets for the re-screening of our live film score to
    “La Riviere du Hibou” (also known as An Occurance at Owl Creek
    Bridge). However, Trylon Microcinema seats only 50 people, so we
    recommend visiting their website for to reserve in advance. Visit
    http://www.take-up.org/buy/393
    We’ll show the film and also play some not-frequently-performed music
    we wrote for the dance/music collaboration we did a few years ago,
    La Riviere du Hibou screening
    Trylon Microcinema
    3258 Minnehaha Ave
    Oct 6, 7:00 pm Tickets: $10

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  13. Could it happen that
    Missing matter migrated
    Straight to my back yard?

    As I now survey
    All the brush to be removed
    Strength begins to fade.

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  14. Not haiku, but… hope these new developments don’t change anything here:

    Just remember that you’re standing on a planet that’s evolving,
    And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour.
    It’s orbiting at ninety miles a second, so it’s reckoned,
    ‘Round the Sun that is the source for all our power.
    The Sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
    Are moving at a million miles a day
    In an outer spiral arm at forty thousand miles an hour
    In the galaxy we call the Milky Way.

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  15. The end approaches.
    Will my flashlight app still work
    When the lights go out?

    I’ve been missing you all… been busier here in paradise than I expected. And weird to be 5 hours behind the action! I’ll be back in Central Daylight tomorrow afternoon.

    In the meantime, happy belated birthday wishes to Donna and Dale!!!

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  16. Don’t expand so fast,
    universe – I can’t keep up.
    Give me a minute.

    There you go again.
    What’s the big rush, anyway?
    Will you please slow down?

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    1. Many years ago there was a haiku page circling the internet, supposedly with Sony’s error messages for its new portable PC. Here are a couple of samples:

      Having been erased,
      The document you’re seeking
      Must now be retyped.
      ——————————–
      Three things are certain:
      Death, taxes, and lost data.
      Guess which has occurred.
      —————————————–
      And I’m afraid, Krista, this one is about your experience:
      A crash reduces
      your expensive computer
      to a simple stone.

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  23. Singular vision
    New tools, ways to interact
    A unique talent

    So long Mr Jobs – and thanks for the swell technology (from my mouse to my iPod).

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      1. I have been away from home since Sunday evening at a conference in Bismarck. Last night I dined in Bismarck with two-high powered research psychologists who publish lots about eating disorders and child abuse and maltreatment and are highly esteemed in the profession. Boy did I feel out of place! I didn’t get back to my hotel until about 9:00 central time. I had a phone call from my daughter who was hysterical, and who had spilled a bottle of pink fingernail polish on the carpet in our study and who couldn’t get in contact with her dad to get help. I tried to get her to calm down and wait for her dad, who was at the college at orchestra practice and who is afraid of his cell phone and who won’t turn it on except in an emergency. It was an effort not to scold her about doing one’s nails while computing. (My daughter is now adamant that I not die before her dad does.) I told her she needs to organize herself to keep her *$@$#$ nail polish in her bathroom and off the computer desk. She used everything she could find to clean up the mess and it was a disaster and the carpet is a mess and it even splashed onto the piano top and I will never leave home again! I am glad to be home and back on the trail.

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      3. Sounds like time for a rug on that carpet Renee. Or a footstool. Beanbag chair? Floor sculpture?
        You know, in a couple years this will be funny. Maybe.

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  25. “Some people see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say why not?”

    i had bobbys saying on my wall. steve had it in his heart

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