The nature of knowledge is fleeting.
We attempt, in sharing, teaching, and beating,
To ensure perpetuity of what we know as the truth.
The chalkboard mocks my fumbling
For I just can’t help forgetting
The things my teachers’ want me to know.
But from Stoichiometry to grammar and spelling,
The lectures and power points are telling
That we’ve lost ourselves in facts and figures.
The time we’ve lost talking
We’ve gained for rote memorizing
But you can only buy so much time before it gets too expensive.
Without the wet water and writhing stream
Poisson’s ratio seems fishy.
An equation with an answer,
Can’t help me find stress.
And without Eve,
Atom will never bond again.
In this monoculture of knowledge
The writing lies fallow,
And my imagination slows to stagnation.
Because no matter how many nature metaphors I can conjure,
I just can’t memorize this material.
Adolfo Xianqu'in, Professor of Lacanha agroforestry in Chiapas Mexico
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