A mother, a father,
two brothers and a sister –
a game of five –
how to arrange them
to minimise frustration
in this spin glass disarray,
where every second interaction
is a source of dissatisfaction.
There is no good,
but is there good enough,
when metastable
is the best solution on the table?
If I step away,
will I see a solution
to the riddles of these four?
Or have I solved them already
by walking out the door?
For the dVerse “Carroll crush saga” prompt – choose three of the Lewis Carroll titles from the list provided, and crush them up into a poem. I chose: “Brother and Sister”, “A Game of Fives” and “Four Riddles”, and threw in some physics. A spin glass is a metastable system because it is impossible to satisfy all interactions between particles simultaneously – there is always frustration in the system as long as it is bound together.Ā Ā Ā
I love this brilliant take on the old problem of creating the ideal seating plan. Excellent, Kate.
Thanks Hobbo š It’s one of the standard “energy minimisation” problems in computer science, like the “travelling salesman” problem.
I enjoyed it, Kate.
This is exquisitely woven, Kate! I admire the flawless manner in which you incorporated physics here š thank you so much for writing to the prompt ā¤ļøā¤ļø
Thanks Sanaa š it was a really fun prompt!
You’re most welcome š I am so glad you enjoyed it.
Gosh. Genius. Thanks for this. Wow. š
Thank you Selma! ā¤
Very nice – well done! āļø
Thanks Ami š
My pleasure! āļø
Powerful write, Kate. A portrait of familial pain.
Thanks VJ, you got it.
my mother would freak out
and set the table early
so she knows what you mean
Thanks John š
yw. no more family get togethers most are now dead and gone
This is something I need to remind myself š
Well done, Kate!
-David
Thanks David, me too. š
I love this poem. Perfectly captures the dynamics. Love how you wove in the physics concepts so seamlessly. (I went through a stage in college when I was trying to incorporate concepts from my chem classes into my poetry. My poetry from that era was mostly dreadful. This is not easy to do well!)
Thank you š It does tend to come out forced.
Brilliantly done, Kate. š
Thanks Marion ā¤