Schrodinger's Cat

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I drift between these two states
At once alive and at once dead

Alive, I see music in the trees
Symphonies play in laughter
Colors spin out of control
And giddy, I fall from cliffs

Dead, the darkness surrounds
Black and terrible, screeching
Nothing seems rational or right
The world closes in, unlovingly

And so the thought experiment
Of my quantum being
Vacillates wildly between
Two poles, yearning for resolve

A paradox? To be sure.
You could kill me with a word.

(what is schrodinger's cat?)

Comments: 21

Bill M. Tracer Feb 7, 2007, 5:29pm EST

The essence of Schrodinger's Cat, well said.

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Carol Voigts Feb 7, 2007, 8:53pm EST

Lovely and lovely image too. Very mysterious like a cat. Please join Animal Crackers group and post this to it. I will be glad to feature it then.

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Edward Nudelman Feb 7, 2007, 9:22pm EST

Good one Eric. I like that you didn't go getting all technical, but kept to a contemporary wordspeak in this excellent poem on the inaccessibility of measurement. I never could figure out why Schrodinger got so much ink with his little thought experiment, considering it really was just a restatement of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. Well done.

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Bart H. Feb 7, 2007, 9:47pm EST

funny... just this week i was listening to someone talk about the behavior of electrons. "behavior" being a rather apt term because in the experiment in question, electrons behaved differently if they were being watched than if they were not.....

in your super-positioned state being both really alive and really not alive, all might change if suddenly you had an audience!

but i trust nobody's gonna kill you with a radioactive word, right?

right?

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X Tabber Feb 8, 2007, 8:54am EST

It's interesting to me that the men who've commented think this is about physics. Several other women besides Carol have responded privately, and have understood the metaphor as one for unrequited love.

Thanks for your comments folks! The quality of Gather minds never ceases to amaze me!

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Cherie P. Feb 8, 2007, 9:18am EST

One must answer the question...

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Bart H. Feb 8, 2007, 1:57pm EST

Eric: Somebody once wrote a joke on Gather that said something like: why settle for a six pack when you can have a whole keg....

On the comments,
the women almost uniformly talked about beer,
and the guys all talked about stomachs....

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Faith H. Feb 8, 2007, 3:33pm EST

It's a Mars/Venus thing, Bart. I saw the lovey dovey part myownself. Physics, schmysics.

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Faith H. Feb 8, 2007, 3:35pm EST

btw, Eric, this is an interesting and not too smarmy look at a certain situation.
and yes, I did read the link.

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Penne W. Feb 9, 2007, 10:07am EST

lol I tend to agree with Faith "physics, schmysics" but then there is the firing off of electrons part and the bio-chemical part and all the other 'parts' that make up the real physical sensation of joy and pain one feels in your situation... just make sure to not let the fire consume you.

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Penne W. Feb 9, 2007, 10:12am EST

oh yeah, p.s. don't answer that question. leave it to be hanging question mark of your dreams, desires, present, future ... the muse should always stay ethereal. the fade away when their feet touch solid ground, when one can actually feel their breath on ones skin.. they are then no longer a muse, just an ordinary folk.

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Charity M. Feb 19, 2007, 8:55am EST

(((THE CAT..a poet)))

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Ann M. (Site Scryer) Apr 21, 2008, 8:54pm EDT

Nice poem, beautiful photograph. For once, I don't feel compelled to read a metaphor here, except perhaps the dualistic nature of the universe.

Has anyone explained to Ed that it's all about CATS? Physics has very little to do with the popularity of this thought experiment!

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Ann M. (Site Scryer) Apr 22, 2008, 9:41am EDT

John, you have a point there. That would have removed all uncertainty from the equation.

We could state, with a P value of 1.00 (that means 100%) that the ferret would gnaw its way out of the box and bite the first solid object it encountered, human or otherwise.

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X Tabber Apr 22, 2008, 10:03am EDT

LOL. I love when smart people comment on my articles. Maks me luk smart tu. :)

Thanks for commenting.

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flit . May 6, 2008, 4:33pm EDT

A wonderful addition to Andrea's article...I'm glad I followed the link

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flit . May 6, 2008, 4:34pm EDT

oh...I hate it when people do that... mention another article and not provide a link back.... so here's Andrea's article

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Andrea "slackermom" R. May 6, 2008, 4:41pm EDT

That's Stephanie's article, Flit. She was trying to explain it to me.

However, I'm glad my feed notified me of your comment because I had not seen this before.

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