Sailing In Sinbad's Uncharted Sea Poem by Paul Hartal

Probing the stars and the cosmos
With science, poetry and art
We expand constantly further and farther,
Exploring the shores of the unplumbed.

We are space travelers
in an endless imaginary universe and
in many ways our journeys are not unlike
the fantastic voyages of Sinbad the Sailor
throughout the enchanted Seven Seas.

Sailing the stormy oceans
of the boundless unknown
we travel in brassy ships loaded
with the heavy cargoes of refined words,
elegant forms and amorphous ideas.

Yet even the most precise tool
in our arsenal, Mathematics,
turns to be a social construct:
An invented world.
After all, numbers don't grow on trees.

As it turns out, the correlation
between mathematics and nature
does not have a secure base.
The arithmetic anchor can not hold
the boat of the infinite.

Nevertheless, the human mind
is a fascinating macrocosm.
It mirrors the creative forces
of the physical world,
of which we are an integral part.

And so, in the final analysis,
Mathematics, science and art
are all invented worlds,
creative semiotic ventures.

We live in a metaphoric universe.
We perceive, envision, structure
and interpret reality by ways of symbols.