Hello My Name is Beta Pictoris
Copyright 2003 Stan Lyness
To put things in their place,
naming is necessary.
So dominion over nature,
sowed with the first
human-sowed seed,
favored with every
pluck of a weed,
despite the early
nod from God,
just never ran full throttle
until Aristotle
tore off on a spree
of classification,
arranging and labelling
all of creation,
an orgy of natural
organization.
To put things in their place,
naming is necessary.
So Carl von Linné
picked up the reins,
nailed each living thing
to a tree of odd names,
a magnum opus so magnum that
a little Latin splattered back,
leaving von Linné "Linnaeus",
and coloring Carl "Carolus".
To put things in their place,
naming is necessary.
So when clouds were just clouds
in 1802,
it was clear to Luke Howard
this never would do,
so, feet on the ground, head in the skies,
he gazed upon heaven, and categorized.
Now it's "cirrus", the crescent moon's sheer negligee,
and "stratus" that keeps the sun bedbound all day,
and fluffy white cotton that over us towered
now "cumulus", thanks to Luke Howard.
Thanks to Luke Howard and a few ill-timed tears,
my nickname was "Nimbus" through junior-high years.
To put things in their place,
naming is necessary,
and often sufficient.
