Science Poems for January 2011: 31

Last April I posted a science sonnet a day in celebration of National Poetry Month (index with links here). This month I am posting a science poem a day, written in various traditional forms, in honor of Science Online 2011.

The "fifth annual international meeting on Science and the Web" ran from Jan. 13-16. Click on the logo below to access the conference page, which has links to posts, tweets, photos, and videos from the event.



As with the sonnets, my January poems take their cues from science-based articles. I also have two works in a special science poem section (vol. 33 #5/6) of Star*Line, journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. You can read my "Ciliate Sestina" here.

Also, two sonnets from last April's collection, "In Development" and "Manipulations," have made it into Open Laboratory 2010. Click on the badge below for links to the 50 essays, 6 poems, and 1 cartoon in the collection.


(Click here to see Andrea Kuszewski's gorgeous cover!)

Today's poem (the final installment in this series) takes its cue from "Stanford archaeologist shows how the Romans made pottery in Britain" (Cynthia Haven, Stanford Report, Jan. 20, 2011). Click on the article link to learn more about the research. To learn more about the traditional poetic structure used, click on the form name.

The Fires of Vinovium
(Form: Rannaicheacht Ghairid (ron-a'yach cha'r-rid))

Orange flame.
British kilns when Romans came
Lay beneath high grassy mounds,
Underground within a frame.

Native clay
Burned a twenty-hour day,
Yielding products dun and strong,
Making long-lived pots that way.

Industry.
Geoarchaeology
Shows ceramic arts back then,
In first century B.C.

More control
Lay within a mounded bowl.
More utensils could be made,
Groundwork laid. Peer through the hole.

Jugs and tiles
Kept to plain and hardy styles,
Topping Britain's import list.
In the mist glowed blazing piles.

Ancient fame.
Stanford scholars stake their claim,
Recreating Iron Age
Life on stage with orange flame.

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