poem Einsteinium, a poem from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series By Chicago Poet and performance artist Janet Kuypers, Einsteinium poem, Periodic Table poem, Einstein poem, relative poem, pajamas poem, the foundations of phyics poem, matter and energy poem, Jewish physicist poem, Germany poem, Third Reich poem, atomic bomb poem, Roosevelt poem, gravity poem, Hiroshima and Nagasaki poem, ironic poem, beautiful poem, radioactive poem, fission poem, scientific research poem, odd job poem, patent poem, puzzles poem

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Einsteinium
Janet Kuypers
from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series
6/29/12
Einstein understood
that everything was relative...
Why did he have to worry
about brushing his hair
or changing out of his pajamas
when he was busy grappling
with the foundations of phyics?
And once he fathomed
the relationship
between matter and energy,
once he understood
the interconnectivity
between matter and energy —
he suddenly understood,
after this Jewish physicist
left his home in Germany,
that Hitler and the Third Reich
could be working on an atomic bomb,
converting so little matter
into so much devastating energy.
At this time, he understood
the need for Roosevelt
to create this weapon
so the Germans wouldn’t destroy us.
The gravity of this discovery
in the hands of evil men
weighed him down,
and even months
before he died,
Einstein wrote
that although the devastation
in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
seemed unfathomably horrific
and he regretted writing
that letter to Roosevelt,
his justification
was the threat of Germany.
When he wrote that letter,
he still had to appeal to Roosevelt,
that yes, to save us from Germany,
this weapon needed to be created.
Knowing about his torment
in making this decision
to ask for the creation
of the atomic bomb,
makes it so ironically beautiful
that after scientists
discovered an element
after the first explosion
of the hydrogen bomb,
they named the element Einsteinium
after the physicist.
How
ironically
beautiful.
Einsteinium is a silvery-white,
radioactive, synthetic element
with a high fission rate,
like the atomic bombs
Einstein first knew of
when fearing his homeland enemy.
But because of the short half-life
of all isotopes of Einsteinium,
all primordial Einsteinium
has decayed by now,
and beyond it’s nuclear creation,
there is almost no use
for any isotope of Einsteinium
outside of basic scientific research...
Which makes me think of the
life of Albert Einstein, I suppose,
for although Einstein worked
at odd jobs for years
until he was a patent examiner,
his mind was only good at one thing:
doing not-so-basic scientific research,
solving scientific fundamental puzzles,
if only he had the time
to study the puzzle long enough.

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Like Janet Kuypers’ writing on any of these links below:

Watch this YouTube video
of this “Periodic Table of Poetry” poem read live in Chicago 11/21/12 (Canon) at the Café Gallery

Watch this YouTube video
of this “Periodic Table of Poetry” poem read live in Chicago 11/21/12 (Sony) at the Café Gallery

Watch this YouTube video
of poems read from Janet Kuypers’ “Periodic Table of Poetry” series, live in Chicago 11/21/12 (Canon) at the Café Gallery (inlcuding this poem)

Watch this YouTube video
of poems read from Janet Kuypers’ “Periodic Table of Poetry” series, live in Chicago 11/21/12 (Sony) at the Café Gallery (inlcuding this poem)

Download this poem in the free 11/21/12
“Periodic Poetry” chapbook,
w/ the Periodic Table of Poetry poems.

Download this poem in the free 11/21/12
“for War and Country” chapbook
(as part of the “Periodic Poetry” chapbook)
w/ the Periodic Table of Poetry poems.

Watch this YouTube video
of this “Periodic Table of Poetry” poem read live in Chicago 12/12/12 (Canon) at Elizabeth’s Crazy Little Thing

Watch this YouTube video
of Kuypers reading 3 “Periodic Table of Poetry” poems (Einsteinium, Neon, & Nickel, recorded from a Canon video camera) read live in Chicago 12/12/12 at Elizabeth’s Crazy Little Thing

Watch this YouTube video
of Kuypers reading 3 “Periodic Table of Poetry” poems (Einsteinium, Neon, & Nickel, recorded from a Motorola phone video camera) read live in Chicago 12/12/12 at Elizabeth’s Crazy Little Thing

Watch this YouTube video
of Janet Kuypers reading this “Periodic Table of Poetry” poem Einsteinium read live in Chicago 7/7/13 at Kitchen Sink’s “What Is It In Your Heart?” open mic & variety show night

Watch this YouTube video
of Janet Kuypers (Sony) reading the “Periodic Table of Poetry” poems Tin, Einsteinium & Nobelium live in Chicago 7/7/13 at Kitchen Sink’s “What Is It In Your Heart?” open mic & variety show night

Watch this YouTube video
of Janet Kuypers reading the “Periodic Table of Poetry” poems Tin, Einsteinium & Nobelium in Chicago 7/7/13 at Kitchen Sink’s “What Is It In Your Heart?” open mic & variety show night (Samsung)

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