poem Bismuth, a poem from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series (#083, Bi) By Chicago Poet Janet Kuypers, Bismuth poem, Periodic Table poem, NASA poem, scientists poem, Albert Einstein poem, theories poem, beautiful poem, silver-pink poem, oxide poem, refracting poem, diamagnetic poem, magnetism poem, Aurora Borealis poem, Earth poem, magnetic field poem, stair-step crystal poem

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Bismuth
Janet Kuypers
from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series (#083, Bi)
3/26/13
I heard NASA scientists say
that Albert Einstein dismissed some of his theories.
That Einstein didn’t like some of his theories
because he thought they weren’t beautiful.
And it makes me wonder:
what is beauty?
Is it how the silver-pink hue of Bismuth
tarnishes into an iridescent oxide
refracting colors from soothing pink
to bright yellow
to a deep blue?
Einstein believed
“The most beautiful thing
we can experience
is the mysterious.
It is the source
of all art and science.”
And scientifically,
no other metal is more naturally
diamagnetic than Bismuth.
I know, I know, Bismuth is diamagnetic
and it’s not the magnetism of Bismuth
that causes the Aurora Borealis
from the Earth’s magnetic field...
But trust me,
from what I’ve seen,
no other element
can naturally produce
such an awe-inspiring
brightly rainbow-colored
stair-step crystal.
So we ask, what is beauty?
They say that beauty
is in the eye of the beholder.
So, it makes me wonder.

$Bismuth crystal illustrating the many iridescent refraction hues of its oxide surface$

my hand to an anim of jkchair