Entropy

Don Herzberg

"The universe is the 'everyday' world. We are the quantum confusion."

- unknown cosmologist

We scurry around fixing this, patching that, 
propping up what's falling down because 
if we don't, natural laws will see to it
that everything crumbles.  I learned that 
in a physics course that billed the idea 
as Science, but I'm not sure it is.
It's just a viewpoint – ours – admittedly 
important whether it's right or not. 

The universe – that thing out there
we keep trying to get a better look at –
sees it differently and if we could 
fling ourselves into that perspective, 
our ideas of what needs repair and 
what doesn't, might change.

Nothing in the universe is falling apart – 
the opposite – everything is being gathered
with no apparent effort into lumps and orbs, 
caldrons of energy whirling around each other, 
gathered into dazzling patterns so beautiful 
our telescopes can't stop looking.

Were we to aim for the rhythm, the harmony 
the universe blends to make its music 
instead of always trying to get ahead of 
everything, we too might swirl in patterns 
giving birth to a life we would never 
have to fix or patch or prop up.

The Science

Entropy has a scientific meaning and one relating to everyday life. In physics, broadly, it is defined as a quantity representing degree of disorder. It is included in the laws of thermodynamics, the second of which states that entropy – that is, disorder – left unchecked increases with time. In our daily lives, that translates into its being the reason something falls apart if we don’t do something to keep that from happening. Structure is essentially entropy’s antagonist. This poem is a reflection on how we always seem to be at war with entropy, sometimes reasonably, sometimes because we haven’t thought of any other approach.

The Poet

Don Herzberg was born in Los Angeles, grew up in Houston, and has lived with his wife and two children in Vermont since 1980. He earned a BA from the University of Texas in Austin in 1964, an MD from Washington University in St. Louis in 1968, and an MFA in poetry writing from New England College in 2004. Don has published poems in literary magazines, given readings at college gatherings and local poetry forums, and his chapbook The Things She Said is being published this year by Red Bird Chapbooks.

Next poem: Entropy (Or infidelity) by Neil Philip Young