See the Tupelo Press 30/30 Project to read the poems for March 19, 2014 by scrolling down to “Day 19/Poems 19” and of course, to read my poem: Ripples / by John C. Mannone
Backstory to “Ripples”:
“Ripples” started as a science poem stimulated by one of the greatest discoveries in the last hundred year that was announced in a Monday March 17 NASA press release. The first tangible evidence of an explosively accelerated expansion of the universe (inflationary model) immediately following the Big Bang is imprinted in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. The violent inflation caused gravity waves to wash the proverbial celestial shores. Ocean waves crashing on the beach leave no evidence of themselves as the water flows and ebbs, but they do leave their wavy impressions in the sand. And in much the same way, the microwaves leave their ripples in the CMB. See the space.com announcement and the 3-minute video that gave me the idea to use and extend this metaphor:
Major Discovery: ‘Smoking Gun’ for Universe’s Incredible Big Bang Expansion Found, By Mike Wall, Senior Writer, March 17, 2014.
The poem draws on this analogy and becomes a metaphor for an emotionally explosive event—the intimacy of a new love—but that which didn’t, couldn’t, last. But the heart shows that those wave of adrenaline that surge in young love are remembered by the ripples of the heart. Ripples works dynamically, too. The pulsing, the flutter of the heart as those memories are rediscovered. It is this human condition that renders this a poem instead of lineated creative nonfiction.
John C. Mannone: The Art of Poetry 