Second prize in our 2024 members’ poetry competition was awarded by external judge Cheryl Moskowitz to Social engineering, by Phil Vernon.
Social engineering
For desert dunes it’s 34°,
but 44 for sand dunes in the rain;
and 45 for sulphur, dynamite,
asbestos, rubble, ash, quicklime or bones;
a range from 32 to 43
for mining spoil, and 38° for snow.
At steeper angles, slopes begin to slide
as shape and gravity and time combine
with unforeseen to turn a trickle into
slump, collapse or avalanche. So mind,
for all you touch or near, the need to know—
and not exceed—their angles of repose.
Phil Vernon
Cheryl’s comments on Phil’s poem were: Well, here we are, a poem that uses numbers again and to my surprise I am completely won over by it. ‘Social engineering’ is wonderful merging of the scientific, the sociological and the poetic. The numbers in the poem are delicate calculations, indicating the exact angle at which a particular material can hold itself, maintain stability and beyond which it will slip, slide, slump or collapse. ‘For desert dunes’, the poem tells us, ‘it’s 34°’. The poem is a warning of sorts, we all have our tipping point and in all human interaction, we would do well to heed that, ‘mind for all you touch, or near, the need to know– and not exceed– their angle of repose.’ I am no engineer and geometry always perplexed me at school but this poem has made me think deeply and carefully about the fine line between fragility and strength and how, balance is always a question of degrees.
The Kent & Sussex Poetry Society 