Richard P. Feynman’s blackboard and a poem

"這首費曼大師的詩作，是這樣開頭的：我獨自站在大海邊，開始思索……"誤解

Optimnem Blog: The Blog of Daniel Tammet: Gullfoss (A Poem)

This poem reminds me of one written by the great scientist Richard Feynman, in that both were written by intelligent men who, although writers, may not focus on poetry specifically. And yet they stand up to the poems of those who do, and both manage to be enlightening in their own way. Life affirming is a good description, but human affirming might be even better:

There are the rushing waves
mountains of molecules
each stupidly minding its own business
trillions apart
yet forming white surf in unison.

Ages on ages
before any eyes could see
year after year
thunderously pounding the shore as now.
For whom, for what?
On a dead planet
with no life to entertain.

Never at rest
tortured by energy
wasted prodigiously by the sun
poured into space.
A mite makes the sea roar.

Deep in the sea
all molecules repeat
the patterns of another
till complex new ones are formed.
They make others like themselves
and a new dance starts.

Growing in size and complexity
living things
masses of atoms
DNA, protein
dancing a pattern ever more intricate.

Out of the cradle
onto dry land
here it is
standing:
atoms with consciousness;
matter with curiosity.

Stands at the sea, wondering: I
a universe of atoms
an atom in the universe.

- Feynman