More Cosmological Haiku
In view of my current rather hectic schedule – why else would I be up at this ungodly hour? – I thought I’d combine another bit of recycling with some audience participation. I’ve updated below the list of Haiku I posted some time ago with some new ones I’ve jotted down at random intervals over the intervening months.
How about a few Haiku of your own on themes connected to astronomy, cosmology or physics?
Don’t be worried about making the style of your contributions too authentic, just make sure they are 17 syllables in total, and split into three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables respectively.
Here are some of my own to get you started:
Quantum Gravity:
The troublesome double-act
Of Little and Large
Gravity’s waves are
Traceless; which does not mean they
Can never be found
The Big Bang wasn’t
So big, at least not when you
Think in decibels.
Cosmological
Constant and Dark Energy
Are vacuous names
Microwave Background
Photons remember a time
When they were hotter
Isotropic and
Homogeneous metric?
Robertson-Walker
Galaxies evolve
In a complicated way
We don’t understand
Acceleration:
Type Ia Supernovae
Gave us the first clue
Cosmic Inflation
Could have stretched the Universe
And made it flatter
Astrophysicist
Is what I’m told is my Job
Title. Whatever.
“Clusters look cool,” said
Sunyaev and Zel’dovich,
“because they are hot”.
Gaussianity
is produced by inflation,
normally speaking.
Gravity waves are
a kind of perturbation;
they make you tensor
Bubble collisions
Leave marks in the C-M-B
To please A. Linde
This Haiku contains
“Baryon Oscillations”
in its middle line.
What should we build next:
S-K-A or E-L-T?
Or maybe neither…?
J W* S T,
(the James Webb Space Telescope);
long name, big budget
* “W” has to be pronounced “dubya” for this one to work!
Contributions welcome via the comments box. The best one gets a chance to win Bully’s star prize.
Follow @telescoper
In the Dark 
August 18, 2011 at 8:08 am
Enjoyed these.
August 18, 2011 at 9:44 am
If no one arrests
our planetary system,
chaos will break loose.
August 18, 2011 at 3:58 pm
That’s definitely the best so far.
August 18, 2011 at 4:19 pm
Reading random blogs:
I want to work hard today
but just can’t be asked
August 18, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Superluminal
Motion Imaginary ?
Complex numbers here.
What we see is the
Observable Universe
In a Telescope
Physics A-level ?
Go to the top of the class
Oh, department’s closed
Are they suppose to sound like crossword clues ?
August 18, 2011 at 11:54 pm
Cyclic universe
it’s not quite playing the game
according to Hoyle
August 18, 2011 at 11:55 pm
Baryon acou-
(no hope of fitting it in)
-stic oscillations
August 21, 2011 at 7:44 pm
space and energy
take away relative time
from spiritual quests
(non-hailu cosmological poems at zumpoems.com)
December 11, 2011 at 10:49 pm
QUANTUM QUILT
Since looking closer,
we don’t speak of empty space.
There is no such thing.
BLINK AND YO’LL MISS IT
Amidst quantum foam,
virtual particle pairs
appear and vanish.
December 11, 2011 at 10:52 pm
COPENHAGEN INTERPRETATION
Values we define
by measurement cause collapse
of the probable.
COPENHAGEN LIMITATION
Values we define
by capacity cause collapse
of whatʼs possible.
COPENHAGEN EXTRAPOLATION
Evaluation
by expectation causes
potential collapse.
December 11, 2011 at 10:59 pm
Since you’re moderating, can you change the middle haiku before posting to:
COPENHAGEN LIMITATION
Values we define
by capacity collapse
what is possible.
Thanks, it’s better scansion (syllable count).
December 11, 2011 at 11:02 pm
FORMATION
Dust coalesces
in orbital overture –
music of the spheres.
December 11, 2011 at 11:06 pm
PHYSICS KOAN
One, solo photon
splits at double slits and then
behaves like waves. Splash!
UNOBSERVED
Single photon shot
through two slits at the same time —
Splash! Light laps likes waves.
UNMEASURED
The lone, quantum bit,
unlike Frost, chooses both paths,
interferes with self.
DON’T LOOK NOW
Particle photon
concurrently through twin slits —
Flash! Light is now waves.
January 14, 2014 at 11:16 pm
[…] with the form of Japanese poetry known as Haiku. I’ve even had a go at producing some cosmological Haiku myself. I suspect rather fewer will have come across another form known as Tanka. Being 31 syllables […]