Science (Luton Fun Palace 2)

As part of the Luton Fun Palace, 2014, Fay Roberts and Sophia Walker took part in a found-poetry/ collaborative poetry/ beat poetry experiment to encapsulate the day in word form, accompanied by the band that had inspired the art that had inspired the graffiti that had inspired the poetry, and accompanied by dancers inspired by the music. With us so far?! :)

All the poems combine work by both poets. The second one is below:

Science

Science is defined as “the pursuit and application

Of knowledge and understanding of the natural

And social world following a systematic

Methodology based on evidence”

I never knew I was a scientist.

Living in black and white,

Strutting the stage of order,

We are more colourful

Than any art,

Imparting the wisdom of laughter.

In between mustaches we are told

To enjoy the wondrous Mad Hatter’s

Party offering. I am intrigued by the

Word “wondrous”, which I suppose

Makes the poster right.

Dial vibration through a lens;

Rainbow music blesses

Chess squares,

Synaptic diagrams and laughter,

Laughter everywhere.

Absorbing random we are told to relax. #LOL

An intimate shrine is displayed on the wall,

Someone’s big dreams lit up in technicolour

Strobe next to a wall proclaiming:

Music to drive through the night

Ironic. The room is almost silent.

Maybe the pictures on the wall do the talking.

Maybe that’s what we’re here for.

We telegraph in hashtags,

Grab bags of tiny science,

Bright as bubbles;

A floating forest of colour

Kaleidoscopes gently…

The artwork looks like

My grandmother’s sofa,

All 60s psychedelic.

More irony. My gran…

There was no one

Further from drugs

We bend to new uses,

We choose a new life,

Striving for a note shared

Across time.

What moved once now graces

In wriggling stillness;

Monuments broken into tools,

Blue notes transmuted into light;

Yesterday gifts tomorrow insight,

And everywhere even the tiniest life

Surprises.