Science, Technology & Medicine

Poem 962 – The Imagination of Rain

/ BenDQ / Leave a comment

The imagination of rain.
A dream that calls forth life
in torrents of shapes and sizes.
Thoughts that whisper strands
of DNA helixes,
a multitude of colours
and possibility.
Ideas externalised
in passing forms,
mirroring those made flesh.
Creativity
dispersed to root and river.

Although the clouds threatened in Hunstanton today, we only got to enjoy a brief hint of rain, no more. It was enough to cause the title of this poem to come to mind, however.
(04.08.26)

© Ben Quant 2026

Poem 895 – World Wide Surfing Spider

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Today, I am a world wide surfing spider.
My fingers nimbly chase its binary threads,
which yesterday hadn’t been dreamt or spun.
As I write, I weave my digital truth.

My fingers nimbly chase its binary threads,
I couldn’t perceive their ways when I was younger,
and as I write, I weave my digital truth,
not seeing the vastness of the world without.

When I was younger I couldn’t perceive the snare
that drew me into this shiny cell phone screen,
and not knowing that the outside world’s so vast,
I dreamt that one day we might fly around it.

Trapped in a cell as small as a mobile screen,
a gaol which yesterday hadn’t been dreamt or spun,
I yearn to spread my wings and finally fly
but today? I’m just a world wide surfing spider.

As promised yesterday, a pantoum. This is a Malaysian poetry form where 8 lines are rearranged and repeated in a set pattern that can come up with some fascinating and surprising results.
(28.05.26)

© Ben Quant 2026
Photo by Photoholgic on Unsplash

Poem 831 – A Seasonal Sonnet

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Cherry blossom blooms, confetti showers,
dancing in tearful hope of dawning light:
rejoice in this annual ritual uniting flowers
of winter and spring in matrimony bright!
The promise of good times ahead now dark
days fade. The stretching daylight joyfully cheers
the heady bride and groom as they embark
into their life as hopeful pioneers.
But on the street the rumours start to grow
of infidelity, illicit heat.
As temperatures rise and passions flow, the oath
once tightly held becomes a forgotten conceit.
The underlying cause of this concern?
Our tendency to mine, exploit and burn.

I was struck this morning by the beautiful blossom that currently lines our streets and then later by a storm of hailstones.
(25.03.26)

© Ben Quant 2026
Photo by dadalan real on Unsplash

Poem 827 – Pandemic

/ BenDQ / Leave a comment

Alas, tonight we failed
to save the world. We tried
but sometimes trying’s not
enough. Sometimes hope
requires a lucky hand.

An early epidemic meant we were up against it from the start.
(21.03.26)

© Ben Quant 2026

Poem 772 – Cyberbarn!

/ BenDQ / Leave a comment

It was only the size of a postage stamp,
a pixelated blur that came and went
with sound that didn’t match the picture,
but it was a kind of magic back then.

Transported to your Surrey garden,
six-hundred thousand strangers streamed
down phone lines crossing continents
into this tiny buffering barn.

We held our breath and squeezed into
that distant doorway, willed the image
to appear until its spluttering
sounds and colours burst to life.

In awe we cheered distorted sounds,
squinting to make you out across
the many miles that lay between us,
clapping, we hoped, in unison.

Could we be hyperlinked? Connected
through our screens? It seemed surreal.
But now HD, the wonder’s leeched
become mundane and yesterday.

I’ve been working on a painfully slow internet connection today. This reminded me of watching Roger Taylor’s record-breaking concert ‘Live at the Cyberbarn’ on dial up internet. How quickly things have changed!
(See: https://www.rogertaylor.info/facts-and-trivia/accolades/the-guinness-book-of-records/)
(25.01.26)

© Ben Quant 2026