THE STUDY OF TRANSFORMATION
I've been invited to speak to the Chemistry Honors class at Los Altos High about poetry. I talk about proteins, the language of nature, how the god Proteus can assume any shape. I write in Chinese— chemistry, Hua Hsüeh on the blackboard, how the ideogram Hua is composed of a man with a ladle, the image of witches' kitchen and bubbling cauldrons.
Suddenly I'm telling them about alchemy, transforming that which is common into something that is precious, how changing the lattice of carbon can turn graphite into diamond. This is the poet's delight— finding inner treasures, weaving words into wings to touch the spirit, refining lead into gold.
I show students pictures of Einstein and Copernicus in the wisdom mudra pose, how moments of mental quiet precede all great discoveries. I ask them to imagine themselves as an element— write about neon lights and platinum blondes, silicon chips, iron constitution, silver eloquence and the golden rule.
The Periodic Table is a giant cross-weave of music, atomic orbitals are filled with dancing couplets, the Lanthanides stretch out like a sonnet, noble gases like end- stopped rhymes, in every row & column, a villanelle is singing. The bell rings and the class applauds, but all I see is the Hua turning into a man bowing & sitting in prayer.
Peter Y. Chou, Palo Alto, 3-31-92

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