For Jonathan on his 70th birthday
Even at 70
I can’t imagine
one stops wondering
at those wonders
surrounding
each day and hour
clearly etched
recorded
in the growth of trees
where future states
are no more certain
than an April wind.
No bad thing then
to review
his life and work
to question again
where we think we are
in this world’s plan.
A life lived
between experiment
and pain
He teaches us
still to look
and look again
at nature’s fragile
patterning
and its chaotic hand.
‘Oh the mystery of
what lies between the
body and the mind.'
Aug 24, 2012
Aug 24, 2012 at 5:54 AM UTC
For Jonathan on his 70th birthday
Even at 70
I can’t imagine
one stops wondering
at those wonders
surrounding
each day and hour
clearly etched
recorded
in the growth of trees
where future states
are no more certain
than an April wind.
No bad thing then
to review
his life and work
to question again
where we think we are
in this world’s plan.
A life lived
between experiment
and pain
He teaches us
still to look
and look again
at nature’s fragile
patterning
and its chaotic hand.
‘Oh the mystery of
what lies between the
body and the mind.'
This poem acts as a forward to Ruth Padel's Darwin - a life in poems (2009), a book I gave as a birthday gift to the father of the woman I love.
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