who only by moving can balance

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no-one ever knew before. But in the case of poetry, it's the exact opposite.

So I came across this quotation earlier, and I am actually really viscerally upset by it. Because trying to tell people things such that they can be understood by everyone is really, really not something we do. Science not communicated is science not done, yes, but - universal understanding? No. I don't even think it's a reasonable or realistic aspiration.

-- and poetry -- oh, it is in my breath, it is grace, it is ease, in a way that science is for me, too, but: there is poetry in science, but there is also a lot of book-keeping -- but it's the poetry of the other, of the external; whereas poetry of the word (rather than of the deed; thank you, Frank Turner) holds me close and smooths my hair and says I see you, and you are not alone. Poetry told me about abuse: that it wasn't okay and that I'd survived it. Poetry told me about depression; about my depression. Poetry provides a place for me to stand; provides me structure to investigate myself; tells me that I can survive and I can be strong and I can find beauty and wonder in the world. It tells me things I didn't know before, about myself, and if we are to denigrate that then we despise teaching, and if we despise teaching then, I feel, we have lost our way.

Poetry is a perfect way for me to say particular things to a particular audience, but it is not the only perfect way, even for a given listener. This does not devalue it. There is craft and beauty and skill in poetry, as in music, as in science; and as in science, just because you cannot see the value or interest of a line of inquiry does not mean it does not exist.

And in that craft and beauty there is, yes, communication of things that no-one ever knew before: about the certain slant of light on winter afternoons, or the harsh call of the wild geese (over and over); about how words fit together like rivers or grains of sand with history running through them, and about the strange and terrible wonder of grief.

I am a poet, and I am a scientist, and you cannot know me unless you can hold me complete in your heart: two things on their own, and both at once.

It's very difficult, though, given how thoroughly sexist and racist and hereosexist (and anything else you care to think of) the undergraduate body is.

Exhibit A: Caltech's shocking lack of diversity: a microcosm for the United States?
Exhibit B: Diversity should mean more than just race, a shockingly under-researched, misrepresentative and inflammatory article by a Caltech undergraduate, published in the Caltech student press.

I've left a comment on the latter, which is currently in moderation. I reproduce it below.

( This is the comment I left on the article. )