The Best of Creative Computing Volume 1 (published 1976)
Poems by Peter Payack (Motorcycle Evolution, Only Minutes, Interstellar Chess, The Average Person, Cornucopia, Only Me)
Poems by Peter Payack
MOTORCYCLE EVOLUTION
The size of the human brain
increased from the apelike
capacity of 500 cubic centimeters
in Australopithecus to about
1500 cc. in modern man.
***************************
It took 2 million years
for man's brain to evolve
from the motor Size of
a Kawasaki 500 to that
of a Harley-Davidson Super glide.
***************************
ONLY MINUTES
It would take
an infinite number
of monkeys,
an infinite amount
of time to write
this poem using
typewriters and
random chance.
***************************
For instance,
it would take 10,000
monkeys 150 yearsi
to achieve one "it would".
***************************
As it was,
it took this goofball
only minutes.
***************************
INTERSTELLAR CHESS
If in the cosmic
struggle for existence
even entire galaxies
are mere pawns,
***************************
(1, Andaomeda - King 4...)
Then who are the players,
and what it the prize?
(...Milky way - King 3).
***************************
THE AVERAGE PERSON
Every second,
the average person
has 100 million
sensations bombarding
his body like so many
telephone messages,
with his head acting
as a switch board to sort
out the data.
***************************
when you read this poem
do you sort of get
a buoy signal?
***************************
CORNUCOPIA
There are 100,000
million billion stars
in the known universe.
***************************
If one in a trillion
has a planet with intelligent
life on it, there would be
100 million sentient races.
***************************
The odds are
that somebody out there
has to like my
poetry.
***************************
That's why
I keep waiting.
***************************
ONLY ME
The only thing
between my shadow
and the sun
for 93 million miles
is me.
***************************
I'm always
getting in the way
of Something.
***************************
Motorcycle Evolution, Only Minutes, and the average Person are reprinted with
permission from THE PARIS REVIEW, Vol 16 No 1. Copyright 1975 The Paris Review,
Inc., New York. Cornucopia, Interstellar Chess, and Only Me are reprinted with
permission of the author: They appeared in CORNUCOPIA, a collection of I4 poems,
available for 50c plus 20c postage from Peter Payack 23, 7th St., Cambridge,
Massachusetts 02141.
