Chemical Poems - One on Each Element

Poetry. "How many gorillas must disappear, so that we can talk comfortably on our cell phones? Tantalum, the chemical element number 73, abundant in African ores, gives us the answer. It makes its confession, along with other ingredients of the world, under the researching pen of Mario Markus. This work removes the threshold between the visible and the invisible, indifference and surprise, science and poetry. The chemical elements are more than gadgets of the universe: they are some of...
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Poetry. "How many gorillas must disappear, so that we can talk comfortably on our cell phones? Tantalum, the chemical element number 73, abundant in African ores, gives us the answer. It makes its confession, along with other ingredients of the world, under the researching pen of Mario Markus. This work removes the threshold between the visible and the invisible, indifference and surprise, science and poetry. The chemical elements are more than gadgets of the universe: they are some of the wonderful responses that shape our bodies and fill our spirits with a lasting plenitude. Markus' frank and rich poetry shows this to us as he relates the elements to wine and pencils, music and lamps, mirrors and the courtship of butterflies. From verse to verse, the periodic table becomes no longer a rigid information scheme, but a window into creation and its most precious truth, which is life."—Fl via Alvares Ganem, Brazilian poet