15 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Life is Like a Sonnet
"In your language you have a form of poetry called the sonnet…It is a very strict form of poetry, is it not? …There are fourteen lines, I believe, all in iambic pentameter. That’s a very strict rhythm, or meter…And each line has to end with a rigid rhyme pattern. And if the poet does not do it exactly this way, it is not a sonnet, is it? …But within this strict form the poet has complete freedom to say whatever he wants, doesn’t he?”
“You mean you’re comparing our lives to ... 1 
notes
notesIt has a strict formula and structure, but it's what you do within the restrictions that is important.
24 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
There is a Cloud Floating in a Sheet of Paper
If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in [a] sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. . . . “Interbeing” is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix “inter-” with the verb “to be,” we have a new verb, inter-be. W...Folksonomies: connections
Folksonomies: connections
1 notes
notesA wonderful passage on the interconnectedness of all things.
28 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Combinatory Analysis in the IChing
Combinatory analysis refers to a group of techniques that can be used to determine the number of elements in a particular setwith- out having to count them one-by-one. Theelements in question could be the results froma scientific experiment or the different potential outcomes of a random event.
[...]
Combinatory analysis has interestedmathe- maticians forcenturies.According toTakacs (1982), such analysis dates back to ancient Greece. However, the Hindus, the Per- sians (includingthe poet an... 1 notes
notesAnd in another ancient Chinese text.
22 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
What Might Be VS What Is
It has hitherto been a serious impediment to the progress of knowledge, that is in investigating the origin or causes of natural productions, recourse has generally been had to the examination, both by experiment and reasoning, of what might be rather than what is. The laws or processes of nature we have every reason to believe invariable. Their results from time to time vary, according to the combinations of influential circumstances; but the process remains the same. Like the poet or the pa...Folksonomies: observation
Folksonomies: observation
1 notes
notesLooking for one is less productive than observing the other.
11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Composing Poetry is Like Science
A poet is, after all, a sort of scientist, but engaged in a qualitative science in which nothing is measurable. He lives with data that cannot be numbered, and his experiments can be done only once. The information in a poem is, by definition, not reproducible. ... He becomes an equivalent of scientist, in the act of examining and sorting the things popping in [to his head], finding the marks of remote similarity, points of distant relationship, tiny irregularities that indicate that this one...
1 Where nothing is measurable.
17 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
A Mechanic Should Sit Down Among His Tools
As the component parts of all new machines may be said to be old[,] it is a nice discriminating judgment, which discovers that a particular arrangement will produce a new and desired effect. ... Therefore, the mechanic should sit down among levers, screws, wedges, wheels, etc. like a poet among the letters of the alphabet, considering them as the exhibition of his thoughts; in which a new arrangement transmits a new idea to the world. Folksonomies: invention
Folksonomies: invention
1 notes
notesAnd consider them the way a poet considers the letters of the alphabet.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Davy Poem on Growing Old
Davy was now forty, and like every man of science and every poet, he hoped against hope that original work and ‘powers of inspiration’ still lay ahead in his maturity. His description of these longings was nakedly Romantic, and surely recalled his moonlit walks along the banks of the Avon some twenty years before.
Though many chequered years have passed away
Since first the sense of Beauty thrilled my nerves,
Yet still my heart is sensible to Thee,
As when it first received the flood of ... 1 notes
notesAnd hoping he still had discoveries ahead of him.
14 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Science VS Art
The subject matter of the scientist is a crowd of natural events at all times; he presupposes that this crowd is not real but apparent, and seeks to discover the true place of events in the system of nature. The subject matter of the poet is a crowd of historical occasions of feeling recollected from the past; he presupposes that this crowd is real but should not be, and seeks to transform it into a community. Both science and art are primarily spiritual activities, whatever practical applica...What the two have in common and the different ways they approach the world.
01 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Rainbow More Beautiful Through Science
Nor ever yet
The melting rainbow's vernal-tinctur'd hues
To me have shone so pleasing, as when first
the hand of science pointed out the path
In which the sun-beams gleaming from the west
Fall on the watery cloud.Folksonomies: rainbow appreciating science
Folksonomies: rainbow appreciating science
1 Poet describes how his appreciation of the rainbow's hues are increased by knowing through science that they are created by sunbeams on watery clouds.
30 NOV -0001 by ideonexus
Cut-And-Paste Before Computers
The method is simple. Here is one way to do it. Take a page. Like this page. Now cut down the middle and cross the middle. You have four sections: 1 2 3 4... one two three four. Now rearrange the sections placing section four with section one and section two with section three. And you have a new page. Sometimes it says much the same thing, Sometimes something quite different--cutting up political speeches is an interesting exercise--in any case you will find that it says something and someth...Folksonomies: mashup
Folksonomies: mashup
William S. Burroughs suggests finding new meaning in old works by creating mashups of texts.
