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      November 5, 2015Arthur J. StewartFive Types of Confidence

      1.
       
      Accidentally I attended an off-
      the-wall flash mob event in the
      lobby of the mall last week and at pre-
      cisely the appointed time a loud bang
       
      happened and
       
      everyone in on it turned and froze
       
      in place staring east, com-
      pletely cap-
      tivating the persons attending and I
       
      took a quick glance west.

       

      2.
       
      I turn and re-
      turn to the slip of water
      along the submersed hull, the soft
      near-silent thud of the great
       
      engine reverberating, almost
      feeling it. With the command up periscope, it
      slides up. In the con-
      trol room, eyes scan
       
      green numbers and orange bars on electronic charts.
      A muted discussion and from that
      a decision is made: turn starboard,
      twenty degrees.

       

      3.
       
      We think
      we know, we take a
      good hard guess—such is
      the power of logic.
       
      In some other dimension the wise
      Greek philosopher frowns and
      shakes his shaggy head.

       

      4.
       
      Our confidence
      is a function of spatial scale. A massive
      thing, when on the move,
      will move
       
      according to a pre-
      cisely calculated plan; a sub-
      atomic particle
       
      won’t.

       

      5.
       
      I am confident
      in love and I so love
      her and her curves and
      the delicate ways she thinks.

      from #49 - Fall 2015

      Arthur J. Stewart

      “I am an aquatic ecologist: It’s what I was trained to do, at Michigan State University’s Kellogg Biological Station, and it’s what I love. From my science perch first at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and more recently at Oak Ridge Associated Universities, I’ve been able to write poetry, in addition to writing technical papers. I devise poems to convey the beauty of science to the public, and to remind scientists, again and again, that there is more than science as a valid way to think.”

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