Poem: Exploring Space

Exploring Space
Jim Culleny

Call me nomad, but rootlessness is my routine

From where I stand space seems to beg for exploration not occupation.
Occupation of space requires a military state of mind.
Armies are trained for it
Individuals however, grow dull and lethargic just occupying space

There's no substitute for dynamism when facing space
When I stumble upon a new chunk I like to engage it many times over
laying out alternate trajectories; bisecting circles; flying off on tangents;
or just nosing around looking for shortcuts

If the wind's right you might catch me boogalooing along an hypotenuse
or oscillating between the foci of an ellipse. Whatever,
I go at it from all angles by any means

For example I've found a trampoline's a satisfying way to explore space:
up, down, up, down.
Along similar lines (if you have the money) a space shuttle is good too:
up, down, up, down.

There are various ways to approach space
We can grid it off and tackle it one little corner at a time
or go at it whole, working it as Jackson Pollock would a canvas.
What we choose depends upon our depth of indoctrination
or degree of personality disorder

Whatever our style though, space can be an exhilarating place
--or is it places?
In fact space is full of surprises
(moving beyond bland Euclidean space that is;
the plainest of all geometries).
Still, you gotta hand it to the guy
Euclid's space may be old hat,
but it's a space that's served us well over the years
--probably well past warranty.
Try getting from here to there without it.

But what really psyches me
are novel topologies of space
There's nothing more satisfying
then space that pushes the envelope

Consider the quirky but tasty appeal of a torus,
Crispy Creme or fresh fried by grandma
or the intriguing infinity of a mobius strip
or the warm and cozy feel inside a conversation-laced pub
these are boundary-pushing spaces all, but
they're nothing up against the reality-bending possibilities
of warped space as offered to us by Einstein

Just the thought of Einsteinian space neutralizes any residual sense of metaphysical claustrophobia
I had left over from grade-school catechism under hard nuns

Me? I never miss the chance to savor space
With six billion of us on the planet at our present rate of consumption
you never know when we might run out


June 2007