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Hi, dVerse Poets. Welcome to Tuesday Poetics! I was fascinated by the recent photo of a black hole, and probably some of you were, too. It was a theory made real, though, of course, there is still much that is not known about black holes. Here’s the NY Times article about the black hole photo.

There is a long history of poetry that contemplates both the world around us and the universe. In this lovely Brainpickings post, Maria Popova mentions several recent poems about space. In particular, she focuses here on astronomer-poet Rebecca Elson, who died at age thirty-nine. Her poem “Theories of Everything” is read by singer-songwriter Regina Spektor. Popova says of the poem:

“[it’s] a meditation on our eternal struggle to discern the unfeeling laws of the universe, over which we have no control and by which we must abide, and to project ourselves onto them, creating cosmoses of beauty and meaning within their indifferent parameters, all the while ourselves remaining mere projections of these very laws.”


The Universe in Verse: Regina Spektor reads “Theories of Everything” by Rebecca Elson from Maria Popova on Vimeo.

For this poetics prompt, I want you to write a poem about theory or theories–how we make sense of the natural world, our bodies, space, or whatever. You can write in general terms or you can write about a specific theory, even something that’s been debunked, such as phrenology. Alternately, you can simply write a poem using the word “theory.” I’m eager to see what the dVerse poets come up with.

Perhaps, like [Miss] Anne Elk, you have your own theory that you want to share.

If you are new, here’s how to join in:





*Please link back to dVerse from your site/blog.