Website of Dr. Brian C. Thomas
Website of Dr. Brian C. Thomas bound (A view of life from my dungeon office
in grad school! Written ca. 2002)
bound by wires to walls of
blocks
hooked, as if by umbilicals,
into devices
for sound, light, input,
output
interacting through digital
translators
intermediaries to a world
less real outside
that changes only remotely
sensed not personally, but
electronically
disconnected from time,
weather, changing scenes
lost in phosphors and halos
of vibrating membranes
exist in reality confined to
a room
return to outside and where
have I been?
emerge from under the
concrete tower
as if from a grave
rising un-dead into a world
unexperienced
for time spent beneath
world changes without our
attention
needs no awareness
cares not if we watch or
ignore
Orbital
Dynamics (6/5/06) (A gravitational
and interpersonal story.)
Two
bodies fall
Drawn
in
By
force of mutual attraction
Revolve
Orbit
'round and around
Their
common center
Off-set
by inequality
Converge
Recede
Return
once more
Inexorable
pull counterbalanced
By
velocity
Or
fear
Of eventual collision.
Quantized (8/1/06)
Life
comes in chunks
Discrete
bits strung together
Like
beads of all shapes, sizes, colors
One
after another
Some
long and smooth
Some
rough, jagged and random
Each
moment-trinket, hour-charm, year-stone
In
seamless sequence
Hung
one by one
Along the string of time.
Stellar
Cycle (6/4/06) (More or less
accurate too!)
Collapse
Condense
Heat
Fuse
Shine
Blow
cocoon away
Emerge
bright and new
Fired
by collision and conversion
Burn
Ages
Fuse
Contract
Expand
Expel
garments of gas
Share
wealth of nutrients
Inspire
Seed
Compel collapse.
Swing (6/24/06) (Inspired by a day at the park with my daughter.)
Swing
Up,
down, push
Higher
Swing
Eyes
shut, head back
In
perfect Zen
Of
periodic motion
Ever
falling,
Never
landing
One
With
oscillation.
Existence (10/17/06)
I
realize tonight the treasure of my existence.
But,
to whom do I owe my gratitude?
To
the Universe, born from nothing,
flung
outward, in ever widening complexity.
To
the Galaxy, island world
of
swirling stars and nebulae.
To
a cloud, its subtle weight,
its
condensations and random eddies.
To
the stars, great furnaces,
refining
protons,
forging
my atoms in slow stellar cores.
To
searing death-shrieks of dying stars,
sowing
all those bits of me
in
well-tilled clouds,
hungry
for mass and impetus
to
form
and
birth my world.
To
ancestors, whose traits survived,
my
atoms recycled through countless others.
Till
here,
I
am in this brief time
A
tenant of these elements.
Emergence (A very long one, sort of a
'history of everything'.)
Cycle
1: CMB (6/1/06)
Chaos
Cools
Expands
Energy
condenses
Congeals
Lumps
gather
Emerge
quarks, electrons, neutrinos.
Quarks
spin, dance with disorder
Cool
Condense
Combine
Emerge
nucleons.
Photons
buffet
Chaos
weakens
Cools
Nucleons
court
Couple
Draw
to themselves companion electrons
Emerge
atoms.
Atoms
emancipate
Photons
Free-stream ever outward
Encode
ripples
Reveal
seeds
Of
structure yet to
Emerge.
Cycle
2: Stars to LSS (6/2/06)
Hydrogen
A
foamy sea
Waves
expand
Gravity
draws
Lumps
grow
Emerge
stars.
Blast
light
Into
ages
Of
darkness.
Reionize.
Manufacture
metals
Unknown
Till
fusion works
Its
flaming alchemy,
As
stars die slowly
Inside
out
Emerge
supernovae
Spread
shells
Of
raw gasses,
Trigger
cycles
Repeated
Collapse,
condense, implode, explode.
Debris
and stars
Join
primordial lumps
Spin,
flatten, merge, expand, evolve
Emerge
galaxies
Gather
Orbit
Distort
Consume
Emerge
clusters, superclusters, filaments, sheets.
Cycle
3: Sun-birth (6/5/06)
A
nebula
Dark
With
death-dust
Seeded
By
ancestral violence
Long
quiet.
Now
patient
In
stasis
Awaits
New
thrust to induce
Compression
So
slight it's unnoticed
For
ages
Till
density grows
Folding
inward
Attracting
All
parts to each other
Now
quickly
Collapsing
In
a race of the center
To
be the first atom
To
fuse with a brother and
Ignite
New
light
In
the infant star heart
Emerge
Sun.
Cycle
4: Planets (6/14/06)
Dusty
disk
Spins
round
And
round
New-fired
furnace
Mixture
stirs
Cooks
Flattens
Condenses
Collides
Sticks
Grows
Gas
gathers
Rock
boils
Collisions
slow
Disk
thins
Planetesimals
sweep
Clear
paths
Consume
debris
Violence
Yields
order
Chaos
Births
structure
The
strong
Voracious
Few
Remain,
emerge planets
Cycle
5: Life (6/17/06)
Chemistry
seeks
In
electrified seas
Pathways
To
complexity.
Now
one structure
Now
another
More
fit
For
replication.
False
starts
Dead
ends
Missteps
Conceive
Nucleotide
wholes
Birth
Chemical
codes
Simple
But
strong
Resilient
Adaptable
Driven
To
duplicate.
Emerge
life
Cycle
6: Diversity (7/6/06)
Environment
heaves
Explodes
Collapses
Boils
Freezes
Crushes
Starves.
Life
grows
Morphs
Adapts
Dies
Reacts
Regroups
Reforms
Dies
Flourishes
Engulfs
Devours
Dies
Remakes
Returns
Rebuilds
Retreats
Battle
for battle,
Life
holds
Adapts
Abides.
Forms
bloom
Complexity
grows
Prospers
Perishes
Treads
paths
Explores
possibilities
Exploits
opportunities
Flourishes
Expands
Emerges
Diversity.