Today is Valentine’s Day, so it’s time for the blog’s yearly tradition of posting a poem. This one is inspired by that one Robert Wilson quote.

The physicist was called 
before the big wide world and asked,
Why?

This commitment
This drive
This dream

(and as Nature is a woman, so let her be)

How does she defend?
How does she serve your interests, 
home and abroad
(which may be one and the same)?

The physicist stood 
before the big wide world 
alone but not alone

and answered

She makes me worth defending.

A realist defends to defend
Lives to live
Survives to survive
And devours to devour
It’s dour
Mere existence
The law of “better mine than yours”

Instead, the physicist spoke of the painters, 
   the sculptors,
      …and the poets
He spoke of dignity and honor and love and worth
Of seeing a twinkling many-faceted thing
   past the curve of the road
and a future to be shared.