The First Law of Thermodynamics
July 28 2016

“energy can neither be created nor destroyed  ...so that the total energy of the universe remains the same”


Who knew I would find beauty
in the strictures of law?
After all, Picasso scorned the rules.
And isn’t the law blind, even-handed,
while beauty 
is for the privileged few?
Like a ravishing woman
the ineffable view?

But the first law of thermodynamics
is so simple, and absolute
it’s a Haiku of existence.

It talks about a closed system,
but implies how hypothetical 
this truly is. 
And what is beauty
but the illumination of life
as universal?

It states that energy
is neither created nor destroyed.
So our boundaries
a more permeable than we thought.
One, flowing into the next, passing it on;
touch
reverberating down
to posterity.

And how beautiful
this symmetry is;
energy equalizing,
an exquisitely balanced scale
that never tips.

The conceit of the poet
is that beauty is created by man,
his language, his hand
his inspired eye.
But there is also beauty
in discerning an absolute truth,
always out there, in the ether
indifferent to us.
And then, how elegant
the irrefutable proof.

Like this foundational law
distilled down to its essence.
A universal truth,
told 
with the simple beauty
any poet would envy.



The scientist, humanist, pacifist, and thinker Ursula Franklin died at age 94. Here’s something I read in her obituary (Globe and Mail -  July 27, 2016):

‘ “She loved the beauty of a good, well-structured argument,” Dr. Orbinski said. “She loved the beauty of crystals and the laws of thermodynamics. She loved the beauty of nature and its intricateness.” ’ 

( I would have preferred “intricacy”, but so it goes. James Orbinski is chair of global health governance at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, in Waterloo, Ont., and former international president of Médecins Sans Frontières.)

Beauty in the laws of thermodynamics?!! This struck me as brilliant, and true. It really resonated with me, because I too admire its simplicity and truth. It is convenient to divide the world  between  artists and scientists:  the former attuned to beauty; the latter dry, reductionist, unimaginative. But even though you don’t invent facts, science is highly creative. Mathematics is pure play. It challenges its practitioners to make  leaps of intuition and  illuminate unexpected relationships.  It rewards them with its elegant proofs and unembellished purity. While the insurgent insights of Einstein were inspired, original, and perfectly realized.  To see the world clearly is to be gob-smacked by the transcendent beauty of creation. You don’t need to make things up, or  believe in a supernatural power.

I also admire the beauty, simplicity, and power of this fundamental law. Poets often talk about beauty. So as  someone who sees himself as mostly a poet but also a scientist, I couldn’t resist taking on the challenge of honouring Ursula Franklin’s memory with this.