In the sun, I feel as one

If I had to have a religion

I should adore the Sun

For it is he that fertiliSes…

Everything. and everyone

 

But the Sun does not just shine…

For a few trees and flowers

But for the whole wide world’s joy

With hidden — forbidden — powers

 

Oh lord, now only the Sun

Directs our gaze away

From itself and to the life

It illuminates each day

And ever it can still ripen

A bunch of grapes for you

As if it had nothing else…

In the Universe to do

 

Cleansing us of gloominess

Those weepy nights bring in

It shines on good, and bad alike

As the second-best medicine

 

The Sun itself is very weak

When it rises every dawn

Gathers strength and courage

As each new day goes on

 

The Sun is our daily reminder

That we, too, can rise again

Yet we are but a pale reflection…

Of its light, its love and pain

 

One Sun warms and enlightens

Two suns, and we would be torn

But to see the full glory of sunshine

You have to weather the storm

 

The Sun can be your greatest gloom

Or comfort, depending on your view

Some attract sunshine, some attract shadows

So don’t let that be you

 

Don’t let the clouds of yesterday

Spoil the sunshine of your tomorrows

Keep your face to the Sun, for fun

And you’ll never see the shadows

 

And it’s the artist’s job to give birth

To some sunshine, when the Sun falls

Cos, above the clouds, every day on Earth

It’s secretly sunny… after all

 

Newton – old village

Newton was born in a very old village

In times of forgerers and fakers

During his stint, at the Royal Mint

He sent many of them, to meet their makers

 

And I read that he didn’t have a girl

Or any inclination, even to inspect em’

Preferred to play with gravity and light

…Down below, and definitely on the spectrum

 

A protestant at Trinity

Occultist and a heretic

Killing folk for copying stuff

Seems amusingly ironic

The founder of celestial mechanics

Kepler was born into the lowest social class, in Germany in 1571

A sickly child, being extremely nearsighted, and having skin problems

He nearly died of smallpox, when he was just four years old

But his mother was a dealer, so she gave him some potions she sold

 

He was a terrible teacher, not a single student wanted to take his class

Yet he continued teaching for a whole year, with no one present to fail or pass

Health problems made his calculations difficult, most done while standing up

Suffering from a severe case of haemorrhoids, dangleberries and clagnuts

 

He had an extreme fear of taking a bath his first wife finally forced him in it

Eight years into their marriage; but he thought it unpleasant, lasted but a minute

 

Got kicked out of Austria for failing to convert to Roman Catholicism

But a chance to get a job in Prague with the king’s mathematician

His works were added to a church’s index of forbidden books

Till someone dared say a Pope was wrong, in 1966. That sucks

 

And it has been said that he was the first to write a work of science fiction

First to describe real, virtual, inverted images and magnification

First to discover and describe the properties of total internal reflection

And first to explain the use of both eyes for depth perception

 

First to explain the principles of how a telescope works and refraction in the eye

First to investigate pinhole cameras and those first pictures that never lie

First to measure the distance to the stars using stellar parallax of incoming light

First to suggest that the Sun rotates about its axis, and to coin the term“Satellite”

 

First to explain that the tides are caused by the Moon and not than hand of God

First to realize that the darkness of the night sky is completely at odds…

With the idea of an infinite Universe filled with all the stars detected

First to derive the birth year of Christ, which is now universally accepted

 

First to derive logarithms, based on nothing but pure maths

First to explain that all bodies come together with a force proportionate to their mass

First to correctly explain the first natural laws, which are universal, verifiable, and precise

First to correctly explain planetary motion, as founder of celestial mechanics, will that suffice?

 

Solar death ray

I do suffer from greenflash, so my eyes tend to flicker in bright sunlight

When there’s lots of solar activity I must seem, to others, quite an odd sight

Yet these ultraviolet rays from the Sun, have antiseptic properties

They sanitize water here on Earth, and in brains, and help to thaw the freeze

 

Greenflash! A rare optical phenomenon, may occur shortly after sunset or before sunrise

The flash is caused by light just below the horizon, being bent towards the observer’s eyes

Light of shorter wavelengths is bent more, than that of longer wavelengths, that can be seen

So violet and blue light is scattered more, producing light that is perceived, to some, as green

 

Kep lies

Johannes Kepler was born in December 1571. A premature child, who reckoned

The pregnancy lasted 224 days, 9 hours and 53 minutes, to the second

This odd piece of information, comes from Kepler’s own horoscopes, of his family

He was the last true astrologer, and the first true astronomer, that’s as far as we can see

 

So according to this, he asked his parents

The exact time when the sperm hit the egg

And they knew

So either the source we’re reading isn’t credible

Or he told a fib to support his existing view

 

Like that story in the good book

When those women saw Christ, after he’d died

The gospel says they told nobody

So how come that observation survived?

They lied

 

And if you want the exact moment in time

It was conceived mentally on the 8th of March 1618

But submitted to calculation, in an unlucky way

Rejected as false, it was returned to me on the 15th of May

 

So, adopting a new line of attack

Storming the darkness of my mind, in this endeavour

Data from seventeen years of observations

And the present study, conspired together

 

At first, I believed I was dreaming

And assuming my conclusion had crept among

My basic premises, meaning it was wrong

 

But, low. it is absolutely certain, that in all instances

The proportion between the periodic times of any two planets

Is the sesquialterate proportion, of their mean distances

 

Kepler’s solids stink!

They said I was a weirdo, I had no friends or charm

My rabid dog-like nature, was bound to do some harm

My father beat my mother, sold my brother to slavery

I had to show some worth damn fast, or it would happen to me

 

So off to school I went, with a dislike of all the rest

Arrogant and acidic, I was still the best

At Latin, rhetoric and geometry, which earned me a path

To a seat in Ulm University, teaching students maths

 

My faith and vision showed that my intellect was grand

I trekked to help revise the skies, in another land

But my master hid the crucial data, of the cosmic spheres

And I would not gain access to it, ‘til there were some tears

 

I penned a work of fiction, and disguised it as a dream

I said my mother was a witch, and that was pretty mean

But then they locked the crony up, and tortured her as well

It took me years of grief, to get her released from the cell

 

The book described the creatures, who lived upon the Moon

While it carved out an orbit, to play a cosmic tune

But little did we know, it would be ‘us’ who’d live up there

‘Cos NASA owns the Universe, and that is everywhere!

 

Frau Kepler was a witch, you snitched

You heard her scream in pain

She just sat there, broke wind, and died

And then broke wind again

 

Get it? Got it? Good!

What a feeling, I’m kinda reeling

I impressed a genius, somehow

In 1600, my hero blundered

And I’m kinda’ talking to him now

 

With defiance, I brought my science

To a world that didn’t know

Similar trips in an ellipse

Was the only way to go

 

You are recorded, your works are hoarded

With universal gravity

Newton formulated your theories

Assured your law’s immortality

 

And the deity, God almighty

I solved his cosmic puzzle vast

Served his name and not in vain

Cos I’m here now, not in the past

 

I must say sadly, don’t take it badly

But your proofs, they had some holes

Your cosmic tune, is still far from boon

But I’m sure God will take ‘our souls’

 

To incite insight

When Pythagoras told us, to square the sides and add them till they match

It wasn’t just his point of view, it’s true, no it wasn’t just his point of view

And Darwin’s fishy selection creating all the species without a catch

It wasn’t just his point of view, it’s true, no it wasn’t just his point of view

When Kepler showed us Earth moves faster when closer to the Sun

It wasn’t just his point of view, it’s true, no it wasn’t just his point of view

And Einstein teased matter, was energy, just for fun

It wasn’t just his point of view, it’s true, no it wasn’t just his point of view

 

Raymond R Leader’s theory

Is delightful, insightful, and true

But is missing a bit

That explains, that it

…Was only from his point of view

War of three kingdoms

Biologists think they are biochemists

Biochemists think they are physical chemists

Physical chemists think they are physicists

And physicists think they are gods

 

God thinks he’s a bright mathematician

But with all this uncertainty

Quickly, he learns that he

Needs to be a statistician

 

…Cos, you can wave goodbye, to your functions

In this eternally collapsing circus

Where physics without thought, is chemistry

And maths, is physics without purpose

 

The whistler

While taking a stroll, up to the dole

On a seaside afternoon fair

I pace the space, with haste, not grace

And place a tune on the air

The notes I legato, with too much vibrato

Are spontaneous harmonies plucked

From an infinite array, of pitches to play

And a selection of tones, blown and sucked

 

‘Wee widdely wee wee, poo-tee weet’

 

If I walk a straight line, the pitch cannot climb

My feet and the metre, may stagger or stray

But if I miss a beat, or we meet in the street

I’ve a bitch of a pitch, if you get in my way

Whatever the path, my tune shows the maths

Of the arcs I am taking, around people today

And this oral pursuit, lets the route, play the flute

In my constant harmonic display

 

‘Wee widdely wee wee, poo-tee weet’

 

It makes me feel like I’m happier…

Than other people…

‘Wee widdely wee wee, poo-tee weet’

…Does whistling

‘Wee widdely wee wee, poo-tee weet’

A smug ‘hello’, back to a sunny day

 

Whatever day it is today

 

The melody survives, until I arrive

And enter through the front door

Past privates, of the security guard

And my brain, it works no more

It’s a trick, to be thick, or pretend to be sick

To the big lady, who must be fed

A ‘Wee widdely wee wee, poo-tee weet’

But quietly, in my head