A poem by University of Warwick poet Professor David Morley has been selected to be part of a series of six poems celebrating science to appear in tube carriages across all London Underground lines in February and March. The other poems in the series include works by William Blake and Lord Alfred Tennyson

In recognition of the 350th anniversary of Royal Society, the world's oldest scientific academy in continuous existence, Poems on the Underground has selected six poems offering reflections on the subject of science. One of these poems  Fulcrum/Writing a World is by Professor David Morley, Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Warwick.

Throughout February and March 2010, these poems will appear in tube carriages across all London Underground lines and will be distributed worldwide through the British Council and Poetry Society. More than 3.5 million tube journeys are made each day.

Poems on the Underground was launched in 1986. The programme was the brainchild of American writer Judith Chernaik, whose aim is to bring poetry to the wide ranging audience of passengers on the Underground.

Professor Morley is a trained scientist as a well as writer and editor of over 20 books. He has won 14 awards for his writing and 2 awards for his teaching including a National Teaching Fellowship. His 'underground' poem 'Fulcrum/Writing a World' takes at its starting point the thinking of William James in Reflex Action and Theism.  The full poem as it appears on the Underground can be seen below or at this link:

http://www.britishcouncil.org/fulcrum_lrg.jpg     

  

and the full text now follows:

Fulcrum/Writing a World

‘While I talk and the flies buzz,
a seagull catches a fish at the mouth of the Amazon,
a tree falls in the Adirondack wilderness,
a man sneezes in Germany,
a horse dies in Tattany, and twins are born in France.
What does that mean? Does the contemporaneity
of these events with one another,
and with a million others as disjointed
form a rational bond between them,
and write them into anything
that resembles for us a world?’

For further information please contact:               

David Morley, Professor of Creative Writing
University of Warwick, Tel: 02476 523346
D.J.Morley@warwick.ac.uk

Peter Dunn, Head of Communications, University of Warwick 
Tel: 024 76 523708 mobile 07767 655860 p.j.dunn@warwick.ac.uk

PR10 PJD  4th February 2010  

• You can read the six Underground poems on the British Council's website