• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
The Friday Poem

The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

  • About
    • Masthead
    • Contributors
  • Archive
    • Search the archive
    • Friday Poems
    • Reviews
    • Features
  • Subscribe

The Friday Poem on 21/06/2024

The deliciousness of this poem rests (lightly) on the reader’s prior knowledge of Sir Isaac Newton and the story about the apple, upon which Newton’s theory of gravity was allegedly based. The addition of a contemporary dog to the whole business of seventeenth-century physics is just as reasonable as the apple story, while the carefully paced, beautifully serious diction allows the reader to circumvent not just scientific hypotheses but the management of life itself from Derek’s point of view. The throwing of sticks is a serious business. Gravity can be a light matter. 

Derek’s Thoughts on Bodies in Motion

Sir Isaac Newton delivered an apple pie the other day.
Wanted to give it to my dog Derek
as a token of thanks for his help with the writing of Principia:
said that Derek’s insight on the trajectory of sticks,
projected and in flight through the resisting media of air,
had led him to consider the hypothetical motions of celestial bodies.

Derek mused:
shared his further thoughts on the notion of gravity
and how Newton’s laws of inertia and acceleration,
while perfectly acceptable in terms of portraying
the orbit of moons or falling apples in Lincolnshire,
left him feeling there were extra mysteries to be discovered,
and that if Newton had the space and time in his busy schedule,
he’d like to walk and talk about it some more

and perhaps Newton could throw a few sticks on the way.

Jonathan Humble lives in Cumbria. Collections of his poetry (My Camel’s Name Is Brian and Fledge) were published by TMB Books and Maytree Press in 2015 and 2020. A third collection (Derek and the Eternally Perfect Petunia Bed) will be out later this year. He edits The Dirigible Balloon and has delivered poetry workshops for Wordsworth Grasmere. He appeared as the Poet in a Fridge for Radio Cumbria during the BBC Contains Strong Language Festival in Carlisle. His poems ‘Masterclass’ and ‘This Work Is Done’ were chosen in 2022 and 2023 as Best Poems on The Milk House website. 

Share on X (Twitter) Share on Facebook Share on Email
21/06/2024

Read this next

Presence

Presence

by Marcia Menter — our Friday Poem on 18/03/22

Site Footer

If you like what you see and want to help us continue in our quest to brighten the online poetry landscape, you can donate a few quid to The Friday Poem.
Oh look – here’s a button that will take you straight to our donation page on Ko-Fi !

.

  • About us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Mentions Légales

Copyright © 2025 · The Friday Poem · All Rights Reserved · follow the Friday Poem on Twitter · follow the Friday Poem on Facebook · ISSN  2968-7675 follow the Friday Poem follow the Friday Poem on

Websites need cookies, it's quite the thing nowadays. We use as few as possible. Okay