When evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould wrote on page 309 of Wonderful Life, The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History (published by Penguin in 1989), “The universe is not so tightly connected that the fall of a petal disrupts a distant star, whatever our poets sing.” it sounds as if he is criticising poets for treating as an exact science. When he then continues,“ But most quirky changes of topography or environment, most appearances and disappearances of groups (if not single species), can irrevocably alter the pathways of life in substantial ways…The playground of contingency is immeasurable.” He is also introducing an agenda of his own.

I have always been interested in paleontology so when I began to see fossil-like patterns on Susan’s silks, I set off on one of my research expeditions. I need very little excuse to read anything Gould has written, because his writing makes the complex topics he writes about so accessible and exciting. Also, research – an essential part of the writing process – is one of my favourite games, even when, probably because it often takes me on a long detour away from my project.

Before long, Gould led me away from his detailed descriptions of the weird experimental creatures that are part of the Burgess Shale, into those broader fields of knowledge and questions about the nature of history and the history of life where quirky changes of topography and environment might have an impact. As a student of the often notoriously changeable humanities, I was closer to home. I was ready to be led on to Gould’s ‘playground of contingency’ to imagine a narrative in which the silken textiles creatures we -The Edge Collective- had created at the Yarck Cutting Quarry could represent and re-enact some part in the melodramatic history of life on the planet.

My next move was to begin a web search on the relationship between poetry and science. Apart from the implicit science and technology already involved in producing the images (the processing of the textiles and the photography) I wanted more inspiration and information from both scientists and poets to create my text for the drama. While it is dangerous to rely on web searches, when I came across references to Unweaving the Rainbow Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder by Richard Dawkins (published by Allen Lane the Penguin Press in 1998), another evolutionist, I had found just what I needed – a writer exploring the poetry in science, defending the way scientific understanding enhances rather than diminishes beauty in the natural world.

Sometimes it is easier to continue the research and put off the challenging task of bringing all one’s ideas together in a cogent piece of writing. But soon my detour almost stranded me somewhere in the middle of a contradiction between my two sources. According to Dawkins,  including Gould can write well and deliver bad poetic science in their writing. It happens when they force connections -----

In chapter 8 of the book Dawkins spells out his reasons for accusing Gould and others of producing bad poetic science and implicitly he encourages all poets, whether they are scientists or not, to carefully consider the function and nature of metaphor.

A blog is not the place to do justice to the relationship between poetry and science, and I had thought about moving on to a discussion of metaphor, but at least now I have decided to settle for some statements that I can use as stepping stones. I need to get back my search for poetry in paleontology, and anyone interested in the links between poetry and science will want to make their own journey on the web. 

And, as Carole Jenkins, a poet with a background in science writes in the last lines of her poem: Fishing in the Devonian

. . . There is a lot

to think about in fishing in the Devonian. So

pack thoughtfully.

(Carol Jenkins, Fishing in the Devonian Puncher & Wattman 2008)

Sari,