Mercury
Janet Kuypers
from the “Periodic Table of Poetry” series
4/21/12
Loving astronomy,
I’ve always looked for images
from outer space.
My computer desktop background
and screen saver images
are NASA and Hubble telescope images.
Near my desk I keep a poster
of the planets,
and I’ve tried to find miniature globes
all all of the planets
for my living room.
Saturn. Jupiter, and four of it’s moons.
Mars. Our moon.
Too many globes of Earth.
The weather patterns of Venus.
Even a W-map of the universe
just after the Big Bang.
But planets like Neptune,
the farthest from the sun,
and Mercury,
the closest to the sun,
(speeding at over one and a half times
the speed of Earth’s orbit),
those globes are hard to find.
Mercury’s eccentric orbital speed
changes throughout it’s fast orbit,
with the fitting, fast-moving name
of the Roman messenger god.
They equated the planet with the Greek Hermes,
because it moves across the sky
faster than any other planet.
Mercury’s astronomical symbol
as a stylized version of Hermes' caduceus.
The symbol for the planet Mercury
is even used to represent the element...
We can’t land anything on Mercury
because of it’s hostile environment,
like the volatility of the liquid element
(the only liquid element considered a mineral).
People shy away from using Mercury
in thermometers any longer
because the toxic mercury can leak.
Historically they tried to use mercury
for mirrors (they use silver now),
and ancient cultures used cosmetics
containing the poisonous mercury
that often disfigured women’s faces.
Ah, the ways women hurt themselves
to make themselves beautiful —
you can still find mercury
(you know, because it stays liquid)
in eyelash mascara.
Putting a toxic element so close to your eyes,
that sounds like a good idea...
Then again, someone just told me
that doctors used to give mercury
antibiotic eye drops to babies
just after birth,
to prevent eye infections
from Gonorrhea / Chlamydia bacteria.
Ah, the many ways
we can use toxins
to supposedly help us.
We want to learn about the planet Mercury?
We send unmanned ships through space
to photograph Mercury as much as we can,
remotely check the atmosphere levels,
the temperature, the speed.
We use mercury in our make-up,
mercury is used in dental amalgams.
Mercury has also been used
in traditional Chinese medicine,
and we used mercury in thermometers
to regulate our temperature,
and used it in blood pressure devices.
Because, we want to learn,
and we want to do anything,
to use anything to our own ends,
no matter how toxic.
Download the free chapbook with this poem of the 2012 Poetry Bomb, with the Periodic Table of Poetry poems.
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See YouTube video
of Kuypers reading this poem (from “the Periodic Table of Poetry”) in “the Elements of Astronomy” live at Evanston’s Perla Cafe 8/25/12 (Canon)
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See YouTube video
of Kuypers reading this poem (from “the Periodic Table of Poetry”) in “the Elements of Astronomy” live at Evanston’s Perla Cafe 8/25/12 (Samsung)
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See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading 5 poems from “the Periodic Table of Poetry” in “the Elements of Astronomy” live at Evanston’s Perla Cafe 8/25/12 (this video was filmed from a Canon camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuyperspoetryshow #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersperiodictablepoetry
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See YouTube video of Kuypers reading 5 poems from “the Periodic Table of Poetry” in “the Elements of Astronomy” live at Evanston’s Perla Cafe 8/25/12 (Samsung camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr). #janetkuyperspoetryshow #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersperiodictablepoetry
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Download edited astronomy-related “the Periodic Table of Poetry” poems
in the free PDF file chapbook
the Elements of Astronomy.
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Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her “Finding Refuge” book poems “Mercury” (which is also in her book “Periodic Table Poetry”, + showing show images 1 & 2) & “Mercury’s volcanic, icy re-release” (which is also in her book “Twitter Verse Periodic Table Poetry”, + showing poem image & show images 1 & 2), then her “Timepiece” book poems “Xenon” (which is also in her book “Periodic Table Poetry”, + showing poem image & show images 1, 2, & 3) & “Xenon discovers dark energy”
(which is also in her book “Twitter Verse Periodic Table Poetry”, + showing poem image & show images 1 & 2) during her “Poetic License 6/2/24 global open mic” through Zoom and a Facebook event page (Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr).
Also enjoy this as a Facebook live video stream which was filmed and streamed from a Samsung S9 camera with a Starburst filter; on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, and Tumblr. #janetkuypersperiodictablepoem #janetkuypers #janetkuyperspoetry #janetkuypersbookreading #janetkuyperstwitterverseperiodictablepoem #janetkuyperspoeticlicense
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Edited version
(performed at Evanston IL’s Perla Café in a live feature)
Mercury
Near my desk I keep a poster
of the planets,
and I’ve tried to find miniature globes
all all of the planets for my living room.
But planets like Mercury, the closest to the sun,
that globe is hard to find.
Mercury’s erratic orbital speed
changes throughout it’s fast orbit,
with the fitting, fast-moving name
of the Roman messenger god.
Mercury’s astronomical symbol
is a stylized version of Hermes’ caduceus,
and the symbol for the planet Mercury
is even used to represent the element...
The planet Mercury’s hostile environment,
is like the volatility of the liquid element
(the only liquid element considered a mineral).
People don’t use Mercury
in thermometers now
because the toxic mercury can leak.
Historically they tried to use mercury
for mirrors (they use silver now),
and ancient cultures used cosmetics with mercury
that often disfigured women’s faces.
and you can even still find mercury
(you know, because it stays liquid)
in some eyelash mascara.
Then again, someone just told me
that doctors used to give mercury
antibiotic eye drops to babies
just after birth,
to prevent eye infections
from Gonorrhea and Chlamydia bacteria.
We used the element Mercury in our make-up,
mercury is used in dental amalgams.
Mercury has also been used
in traditional Chinese medicine,
and we used mercury in thermometers
for body temperature,
and used it in blood pressure devices.
Because, we want to learn,
and we want to do anything,
to use anything to our own ends,
no matter how toxic.
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