Michael Symmons Roberts talks to New Scientist (2007) on science and poetry.
'The Box' (poem read in the above video) from Corpus (2004):
In case of catastrophe,
winter can be recreated
from this skeleton of leaf.
All the bitter subtleties
of crab apple are tangled
here, as is the DNA
of dew-point calibration
of the second when a tree
lets go, the recipe for clouds
on the horizon like a new
born mountain range,
like north itself.
And with the leaf,
this relic box contains
a hair curl from a child
to reconstruct humanity,
though all the lights and currents
of his soul are lost to us.
Spores, antennae, claws,
the box will hold all evolution.
It will be full and empty.
More of his poems from The Poetry Archive.
