Waves

The Standard Model
So scientists used to say
Followed the bell curve.

Common sense at sea
Giant waves should not exist.
The deep holds surprises.

Sailors’ salty tales
Fanciful stories, dismissed.
Old coelacanth lives!

In the quantum world
Ninja waves steal energy
Creating monsters.

To engulf oil rigs,
Punch through steel hulls like paper.
Child’s toy, in peril.

We should have listened
To ancient warnings of doom
Hokusai’s Great Wave.

Sea’s wisdom captured
The boat, delicate, fragile.
Vulnerable craft.

Engineers who dared
Harness neutron’s power
Built Fukishima.

When the levee burst
Sea power took rightful place.
Reclaimed our folly.

Nuclear promised
Infinite power on tap,
“Too cheap to meter”.

Ironic, heady
White heat of technology,
And the dials spun.

But Three Mile Island
Exploded complacency.
Fallen Icarus.

Wave, wind and solar,
Potential for clean power.
Let’s harness Nature.

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You can read some more of my poetry in ‘Little Red Poetry’. All proceeds go to build a new party for ordinary people, against cuts and privatisation.

Copies are also available from Left Books

Tags: energy, fukishima, physics, renewables, sea, waves