poem Nobelium, a poem from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series (#102, No), By Chicago Poet and performance artist Janet Kuypers, Nobelium poem, Periodic Table poem, looking poem, peace poem, element poem, Sweden poem, American poem, synthesizing poem, claim poem, Possession poem, hidden poem, anger poem, discontent poem, silvery white poem, gray poem, rough poem, metallic poem, hazard poem, sufficient amounts poem, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) poem, Alfred Nobel poem

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Nobelium
Janet Kuypers
from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series (#102, No)*
11/27/12
I never saw you.
You were the one thing
we were all looking for —
peace —
and we didn’t know
what it would look like
when we found it.
If we found it.
I heard that Sweden
laid claim to you first,
but I swear,
we were all searching for you,
and I think that like most Americans
we would even try to synthesize you
in order to lay claim to you.
Listen to me,
like all Americans,
laying claim to you.
Possessing you.
Maybe you’ve kept yourself
so well hidden
because we’ll never learn
how to live in peace...
Maybe we can only take peace
in small amounts,
mixed with our usual
anger and discontent.
I know you’ve been around
for so very long,
and I can’t remember
how many years
we’ve been searching for you.
Had your hair grown
to silvery white or gray
waiting for us
to truly want peace?
Have you grown rough and metallic
in your impatience with us?
Would you be a hazard to us
if we took you in
in sufficient amounts?
Because, we want to take that chance.
Because we’ve been looking,
and we’ve been waiting for you.

    * The discovery of element 102 was first announced
by physicists at the Nobel Institute in Sweden in 1957.
The synthesis of element 102 was then claimed in April 1958
at the University of California, Berkeley. Element 102
was first named nobelium (No) by its claimed discoverers in 1957
by scientists at the Nobel Institute in Sweden.
The name was later adopted by Berkeley scientists
who claimed its discovery in 1959. The International Union
of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) officially recognised
the name nobelium following the Berkeley results.
In 1994, and subsequently in 1997, the IUPAC ratified the name
nobelium (No) for the element on the basis that it had become
entrenched in the literature over the course of 30 years
and that Alfred Nobel should be commemorated in this fashion.
    Little is known about the element but limited chemical experiments
have shown that it forms a stable divalent ion in solution as well as the
predicted trivalent ion that is associated with its presence as one of the actinides.
    The appearance of this element is unknown, however it is
most likely silvery-white or gray and metallic.
If sufficient amounts of nobelium were produced,
it would pose a radiation hazard.

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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 11/17/12 (Canon) at her feature On the Edge of the Table

Watch this YouTube video
of this “Periodic Table of Poetry” poem read live in Chicago 11/17/12 (Sony) at her feature On the Edge of the Table

Watch this YouTube video
of poems read from Janet Kuypers’ “Periodic Table of Poetry” series, live in Chicago 11/17/12 (Canon) at her feature On the Edge of the Table

Watch this YouTube video
of poems read from Janet Kuypers’ “Periodic Table of Poetry” series, live in Chicago 11/17/12 (Sony) at her feature On the Edge of the Table

Download this poem in the free chapbook
On the Edge of the Table,
w/ the Periodic Table of Poetry poems
toward the end of the Periodic Table.

Watch this YouTube video
of Janet Kuypers reading this “Periodic Table of Poetry” poem Nobelium 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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