Poetry competition CLOSED 7th July 2013 3:10am
WINNER
lanooz
lanooz
RUNNERS-UP:
kriticool
and Alastair
Page:
J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER
Anonymous
Poetry Contest Description
Historical Importance of J Robert Oppenheimer
http://www.hinduhumanrights.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/oppenheimer.jpg
1. write a poem about J. Robert Oppenheimer which can be any number of subjects - he directed the Manhattan Project. Look him up - his life was complex and involved many other famous people.
Look up Los Alamos......the scope of this is wide...
2. you may submit old or new poems
3. you may submit poems of any genre
4. you may submit up to 3 poems
5. more instructions and guidance will be given
email me or post......
Historical Importance of J Robert Oppenheimer:
Oppenheimer was the director of the Manhattan Project, the U.S.'s attempt during World War II to create an atomic bomb. Oppenheimer's struggle after the war with the morality of building such a massively destructive weapon epitomized the moral dilemma that faced scientists who worked to create the atomic and hydrogen bombs.
1. write a poem about J. Robert Oppenheimer which can be any number of subjects - he directed the Manhattan Project. Look him up - his life was complex and involved many other famous people.
Look up Los Alamos......the scope of this is wide...
2. you may submit old or new poems
3. you may submit poems of any genre
4. you may submit up to 3 poems
5. more instructions and guidance will be given
email me or post......
Historical Importance of J Robert Oppenheimer:
Oppenheimer was the director of the Manhattan Project, the U.S.'s attempt during World War II to create an atomic bomb. Oppenheimer's struggle after the war with the morality of building such a massively destructive weapon epitomized the moral dilemma that faced scientists who worked to create the atomic and hydrogen bombs.
Anonymous
"Oppenheimer Schmotenheimer"
http://www.exploratorium.edu/nagasaki/journey/30.jpg
He was no different,
the cat's out of the bag,
the genie's no saint,
diabolical.
Atomic realities mushroomed,
the science of killing,
creating mass confusion,
the piles of burnt bodies
started a nuclear-institution.
Backtracker...
Christ,
what was he thinking?
It was a weapons project,
not a cake baking contest!
Please, give us a break
from worship.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/nagasaki/journey/07.jpg
http://www.atomicarchive.com/Photos/Nagasaki/images/NG30.jpg
http://www.exploratorium.edu/nagasaki/journey/30.jpg
He was no different,
the cat's out of the bag,
the genie's no saint,
diabolical.
Atomic realities mushroomed,
the science of killing,
creating mass confusion,
the piles of burnt bodies
started a nuclear-institution.
Backtracker...
Christ,
what was he thinking?
It was a weapons project,
not a cake baking contest!
Please, give us a break
from worship.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/nagasaki/journey/07.jpg
http://www.atomicarchive.com/Photos/Nagasaki/images/NG30.jpg
Anonymous
http://izquotes.com/quotes-pictures/quote-i-am-become-death-the-destroyer-of-worlds-j-robert-oppenheimer-139357.jpg
Robert Oppenheimer was horrified by what he had created
When the world’s first atomic device exploded over the desert in New Mexico on a stormy dawn in July of 1945, two great men reacted to one of the pivotal moments in human history. One was Enrico Fermi. He had torn up a piece of paper into small shreds. These he loosed into the air at the moment of the detonation. By measuring their displacement he was able to calculate that the Trinity blast had been equivalent to X tons of TNT. This was pure science in the field. His wife Laura Fermi reports: “He was so profoundly and totally absorbed in his bits of paper that he was not aware of the tremendous noise.”
J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, witnessed the same event. He too was a scientist. He was of course delighted that the thing worked — as few as twelve hours before the test he had been assured by members of his team that it would not explode. But he brought the great tradition of the humanities to the moment. His reaction, therefore, was deeper, more interesting, and it was morally informed.
*** From deep in his literary training, lines from the Hindu sacred text the Bhagavad Gita burst into his consciousness at the moment of detonation. “I am become death, the shatterer of worlds.” ***
This might be thought of as the epitaph of the Twentieth Century— a century that opened with the Boer War and ends with the Balkan War (both post-colonial fiascos), the century of the Holocaust, the century of two world wars, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Cold War.
NOTE:
That Oppenheimer’s quotation from Hindu literature was not a piece of public relations rhetoric of the “One small step for man, one giant leap . . . ” variety, is proved by the testimony of Vannevar Bush:
"He was a profoundly complex character. . . . So my comment will be brief. I simply record a poem, which he translated from the Sanskrit, and which he recited to me two nights before [Trinity]:
“In battle, in forest, at the precipice in the mountains,
On the dark great sea, in the midst of javelins and arrows,
In sleep, in confusion, in the depths of shame,
The good deeds a man has done before defend him.”
This too was a passage from the Bhagavad Gita.
In this century, more than 100 million people have been killed in wars alone. The humanities teach us that the core of human nature is a constant, that humans are no more bloodthirsty in 1999 than they were in 4004 BCE. But the technologies of mayhem have changed a little. Homer’s Achilles, in his megalomaniacal rage for vengeance, kills a couple of hundred Trojans with his spear over the course of a few days. The crew of the Enola Gay — or was it Harry Truman? — or was it J. Robert Oppenheimer? —or was it the “military industrial complex” — kills 100,000 Japanese civilians in an instant without any particular feeling of wrath. The character of Twentieth Century warfare is cold-bloodedness. Dachau was as much a monument to efficiency as it was to the depravity of the human spirit.
The first atomic bombing occurred on August 6, 1945 at Hiroshima in Japan. An area of four square miles (an area in Reno, Nevada, from the airport Hilton to Sundance bookstore, from the University of Nevada campus to the Bank of America building) was utterly destroyed. Ninety percent of the structures of the city, some 70,000 buildings, were instantly destroyed. One hundred thousand people died immediately. Another 100,000 people died within the next five years. The final death toll is impossible to calculate.
The atomic detonation of August 6, 1945 vaporized a city. It also vaporized the Enlightenment. One of the most elusive humanities questions is whether the atomic bomb was different from other destructive devices in degree or in kind. In other words, is the atomic bomb merely a kind of super bomb-more destructive to be sure, but fundamentally not really different from other ordinance — or is it something new under the sun? Is it merely the logical culmination of industrial weapons technology, or does it in fact carry humanity to a deeper circle of hell? J. Robert Oppenheimer was under no illusions:
When it went off, in the New Mexico dawn,” he wrote, “that first atomic bomb, we thought of Alfred Nobel, and his hope, his vain hope, that dynamite would put an end to wars. We thought of the legend of Prometheus, of that deep sense of guilt in man’s new powers, that reflects his recognition of evil, and his long knowledge of it. We knew that it was a new world, but even more we knew that novelty itself was a very old thing in human life, that all our ways are rooted in it.
This question is the subject of endless debate. Most Americans choose to believe that the use of atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki actually saved lives. The figure that is usually bruited about is that 1,000,000 would have died in the Allied invasion of the Japanese mainland. Those who dwell on the fact that the only two instances of atomic warfare in human history were undertaken by America against an Asiatic enemy population, almost entirely civilian, including the inhabitants of Nagasaki, the center of Christianity in Japan, are usually shouted down. This much is clear. The destructive power of the atomic bomb was so shocking that the device has never been used in war again, in spite of the fact that at least a dozen nations possess the device. It seems (so far) that humanity is capable of restraining its urge to mayhem, at least in this most extreme of forms.
Once he realized what he had wrought, J. Robert Oppenheimer determined to use his enormous gifts to limit the spread and further development of atomic weaponry. On October 16, 1945, Oppenheimer accepted an award of appreciation for his work on the bomb with the following words:
If atomic bombs are to be added to the arsenals of the world, or the arsenals of nations preparing for war, then the time will come when mankind will curse the name of Los Alamos and Hiroshima.
http://dakotaskyed.wordpress.com/chautauqua/j-robert-oppenheimer/the-shattering-of-j-robert-oppenheimer-essay/
Robert Oppenheimer was horrified by what he had created
When the world’s first atomic device exploded over the desert in New Mexico on a stormy dawn in July of 1945, two great men reacted to one of the pivotal moments in human history. One was Enrico Fermi. He had torn up a piece of paper into small shreds. These he loosed into the air at the moment of the detonation. By measuring their displacement he was able to calculate that the Trinity blast had been equivalent to X tons of TNT. This was pure science in the field. His wife Laura Fermi reports: “He was so profoundly and totally absorbed in his bits of paper that he was not aware of the tremendous noise.”
J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, witnessed the same event. He too was a scientist. He was of course delighted that the thing worked — as few as twelve hours before the test he had been assured by members of his team that it would not explode. But he brought the great tradition of the humanities to the moment. His reaction, therefore, was deeper, more interesting, and it was morally informed.
*** From deep in his literary training, lines from the Hindu sacred text the Bhagavad Gita burst into his consciousness at the moment of detonation. “I am become death, the shatterer of worlds.” ***
This might be thought of as the epitaph of the Twentieth Century— a century that opened with the Boer War and ends with the Balkan War (both post-colonial fiascos), the century of the Holocaust, the century of two world wars, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Cold War.
NOTE:
That Oppenheimer’s quotation from Hindu literature was not a piece of public relations rhetoric of the “One small step for man, one giant leap . . . ” variety, is proved by the testimony of Vannevar Bush:
"He was a profoundly complex character. . . . So my comment will be brief. I simply record a poem, which he translated from the Sanskrit, and which he recited to me two nights before [Trinity]:
“In battle, in forest, at the precipice in the mountains,
On the dark great sea, in the midst of javelins and arrows,
In sleep, in confusion, in the depths of shame,
The good deeds a man has done before defend him.”
This too was a passage from the Bhagavad Gita.
In this century, more than 100 million people have been killed in wars alone. The humanities teach us that the core of human nature is a constant, that humans are no more bloodthirsty in 1999 than they were in 4004 BCE. But the technologies of mayhem have changed a little. Homer’s Achilles, in his megalomaniacal rage for vengeance, kills a couple of hundred Trojans with his spear over the course of a few days. The crew of the Enola Gay — or was it Harry Truman? — or was it J. Robert Oppenheimer? —or was it the “military industrial complex” — kills 100,000 Japanese civilians in an instant without any particular feeling of wrath. The character of Twentieth Century warfare is cold-bloodedness. Dachau was as much a monument to efficiency as it was to the depravity of the human spirit.
The first atomic bombing occurred on August 6, 1945 at Hiroshima in Japan. An area of four square miles (an area in Reno, Nevada, from the airport Hilton to Sundance bookstore, from the University of Nevada campus to the Bank of America building) was utterly destroyed. Ninety percent of the structures of the city, some 70,000 buildings, were instantly destroyed. One hundred thousand people died immediately. Another 100,000 people died within the next five years. The final death toll is impossible to calculate.
The atomic detonation of August 6, 1945 vaporized a city. It also vaporized the Enlightenment. One of the most elusive humanities questions is whether the atomic bomb was different from other destructive devices in degree or in kind. In other words, is the atomic bomb merely a kind of super bomb-more destructive to be sure, but fundamentally not really different from other ordinance — or is it something new under the sun? Is it merely the logical culmination of industrial weapons technology, or does it in fact carry humanity to a deeper circle of hell? J. Robert Oppenheimer was under no illusions:
When it went off, in the New Mexico dawn,” he wrote, “that first atomic bomb, we thought of Alfred Nobel, and his hope, his vain hope, that dynamite would put an end to wars. We thought of the legend of Prometheus, of that deep sense of guilt in man’s new powers, that reflects his recognition of evil, and his long knowledge of it. We knew that it was a new world, but even more we knew that novelty itself was a very old thing in human life, that all our ways are rooted in it.
This question is the subject of endless debate. Most Americans choose to believe that the use of atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki actually saved lives. The figure that is usually bruited about is that 1,000,000 would have died in the Allied invasion of the Japanese mainland. Those who dwell on the fact that the only two instances of atomic warfare in human history were undertaken by America against an Asiatic enemy population, almost entirely civilian, including the inhabitants of Nagasaki, the center of Christianity in Japan, are usually shouted down. This much is clear. The destructive power of the atomic bomb was so shocking that the device has never been used in war again, in spite of the fact that at least a dozen nations possess the device. It seems (so far) that humanity is capable of restraining its urge to mayhem, at least in this most extreme of forms.
Once he realized what he had wrought, J. Robert Oppenheimer determined to use his enormous gifts to limit the spread and further development of atomic weaponry. On October 16, 1945, Oppenheimer accepted an award of appreciation for his work on the bomb with the following words:
If atomic bombs are to be added to the arsenals of the world, or the arsenals of nations preparing for war, then the time will come when mankind will curse the name of Los Alamos and Hiroshima.
http://dakotaskyed.wordpress.com/chautauqua/j-robert-oppenheimer/the-shattering-of-j-robert-oppenheimer-essay/
Anonymous
Thank you Strider, for starting the competition.
Sad truth to the evils he planned
In an effort against the particle
That split, the monstrous lies
From irrational foes whose people died
Or were left forgotten to suffer
What would you do to protect the life?
Of everyone in your country
He pressed the cigarette to the ashtray
Lit up another, I thought I heard him say
“There were others with the means”
But how close were they really?
Close enough when the spies
Handed them the plans
No wonder Stallion didn't look surprised
How could there not be pity in his eyes
A suicide of scorn she died to be reborn
Not merely a sign but a sighting of god
That ripped through the air
The god of son smoked another cigarette
Another nail in the throat left him
Hanging from it like moss
The Holy Spirit signed the letter
And his friend sent it straight to the top
A true man was the father
He makes anything come true and
He bought you all the right tools
What if they had the gun?
Pointed straight at you
Forced to let them rub
Their blood-soaked hands
All over your love
Like they done to your brothers
The weight of the world on the shoulders
The wisdom of its ways twisted by this soldier
Mushroom clouds of doubt
Formed after the fallout
He bore the hand of the god of son
Now he felt like the god of the sun
Stood before him, he lit up another
I thought I heard him say
“It worked, my god”
But god just wanted to go bigger and better
It was expected
No carnage or no wreckage could sway
God had sent his message
And the son’s innocence
Perhaps was overshadowed
By his influence to strive for greatness
To let others thrive
To let others die
He lit up another cigarette
Unraveling to a fellow traveler
Regrets are imagined yet tangible
Something best not to gravel in
Though they are not under my command
The rancidness slips into waking moment as often as dreams
His fatal flaw was he held the means in his mind
The means in his mind placed the gun in god's hand
Like a hostage trying to get his demands
Showing he’s serious more dangerous more reckless,
He can create more devastation more efficiently
than the enemy force his hand to shake
Some weddings call for wakes
Unsettling and full of shame
In an effort against the particle
That split, the monstrous lies
From irrational foes whose people died
Or were left forgotten to suffer
What would you do to protect the life?
Of everyone in your country
He pressed the cigarette to the ashtray
Lit up another, I thought I heard him say
“There were others with the means”
But how close were they really?
Close enough when the spies
Handed them the plans
No wonder Stallion didn't look surprised
How could there not be pity in his eyes
A suicide of scorn she died to be reborn
Not merely a sign but a sighting of god
That ripped through the air
The god of son smoked another cigarette
Another nail in the throat left him
Hanging from it like moss
The Holy Spirit signed the letter
And his friend sent it straight to the top
A true man was the father
He makes anything come true and
He bought you all the right tools
What if they had the gun?
Pointed straight at you
Forced to let them rub
Their blood-soaked hands
All over your love
Like they done to your brothers
The weight of the world on the shoulders
The wisdom of its ways twisted by this soldier
Mushroom clouds of doubt
Formed after the fallout
He bore the hand of the god of son
Now he felt like the god of the sun
Stood before him, he lit up another
I thought I heard him say
“It worked, my god”
But god just wanted to go bigger and better
It was expected
No carnage or no wreckage could sway
God had sent his message
And the son’s innocence
Perhaps was overshadowed
By his influence to strive for greatness
To let others thrive
To let others die
He lit up another cigarette
Unraveling to a fellow traveler
Regrets are imagined yet tangible
Something best not to gravel in
Though they are not under my command
The rancidness slips into waking moment as often as dreams
His fatal flaw was he held the means in his mind
The means in his mind placed the gun in god's hand
Like a hostage trying to get his demands
Showing he’s serious more dangerous more reckless,
He can create more devastation more efficiently
than the enemy force his hand to shake
Some weddings call for wakes
Unsettling and full of shame
Anonymous
Alastair - thank you for your poem.
Oppenheimer just headed the project.
It was commissioned by the USA.
The reason it was successful is that persecuted Physicists from Germany
helped (yes...Einstein too)
Oppenheimer, seeing the destruction in Nagasaki and Hiroshima
went on to become ANTI-BOMB....the USA then stripped him of
all his security clearance. He died without the recognition
that he deserved.
Nuclear power perhaps was the Pandora's box that never should have
been opened.
Oppenheimer just headed the project.
It was commissioned by the USA.
The reason it was successful is that persecuted Physicists from Germany
helped (yes...Einstein too)
Oppenheimer, seeing the destruction in Nagasaki and Hiroshima
went on to become ANTI-BOMB....the USA then stripped him of
all his security clearance. He died without the recognition
that he deserved.
Nuclear power perhaps was the Pandora's box that never should have
been opened.
Cooked Earth
...a haiku
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aOl-oVC6_po/UO6HlfcDXHI/AAAAAAAAc_s/p-OPP4-83wE/s640/2a.jpg
J. Bob, Op’s Hammer
him and crew; man they flamed her
PoP goes The Sizzle
artwork: Hirnverbrannt
Anonymous
Kriticool - very appropriate....using a Haiku....
More poems invited.................
More poems invited.................
Atomic Perception
Destroying worlds but mentally he's drained
The savior transformed into the angel of death
What did you create? Please have some fate
Atomic bombs exploding over New Mexico's air
Daddy was proud but disturbed at the sight
Moments of pivotal importance exploding outright
Shredding the thought of ever again sleeping in peace
Trinity blasts have killed America's innocence. Sigh.
Morality has left the room to be seen no more
Simple and complex, excitement turns into shame
Constant wars, bloody hands still stain the brain
Hey mankind, we lost the most brilliant of men
Haunted by his brilliance he turned and said "Amen"
No more thoughts of killing the innocent without a pen
Pandora's box opened, it will never be closed again.
Destroying worlds but mentally he's drained
The savior transformed into the angel of death
What did you create? Please have some fate
Atomic bombs exploding over New Mexico's air
Daddy was proud but disturbed at the sight
Moments of pivotal importance exploding outright
Shredding the thought of ever again sleeping in peace
Trinity blasts have killed America's innocence. Sigh.
Morality has left the room to be seen no more
Simple and complex, excitement turns into shame
Constant wars, bloody hands still stain the brain
Hey mankind, we lost the most brilliant of men
Haunted by his brilliance he turned and said "Amen"
No more thoughts of killing the innocent without a pen
Pandora's box opened, it will never be closed again.
Anonymous
Thank you Lanooz!
