Please note: Wonder Materials ended on 25 June 2017. To find out what exhibitions and activities are open today, visit our What’s On section.
Lemn Sissay, noted Manchester poet and Chancellor of the University of Manchester, was commissioned by the Museum of Science and Industry to write the following poem for our Wonder Materials: Graphene and Beyond exhibition, running from 23 July 2016 to 25 June 2017.
The following video of Lemn is featured in the exhibition, and the poem was performed by Lemn for a VIP audience at the exhibition launch at the museum on 22 July 2016.
The World Wakes
Brilliance explodes the darkness of graphite
A beam reveals the mysteries of night
Overland underground wonderland flatland
Found the future on a sticky tricky backhand
Dawn cradles shadows with fables of sight
And bathes silhouettes in ladles of light
“And we must take the current when it serves
or lose our ventures” and all their worth
Let’s build; think the un-think-able
Take the vast sea and make it drinkable
Make cities float. Ride solo in the sky,
Click the browser from a lens in the eye
The future is as wide as dreams are high
March an elephant through a needle’s eye
Now grow: And solve the unsolvable
Link the unthinkable. Think the impossible
Overland underground wonderland flatland
Found the future on a sticky tricky backhand
Throw text on window-screens – no road signs –
Let skin tones change with each frame of mind
Wear graphene sensors upon the skin
Which pulsate when alerted there’s illness within
And at birth upload the world wide web
To encoded cells inside the head.
2d or not 2d? – is no longer the query
Speak your vision we’re done with ‘in theory’
The world wakes inside the dream:
Nothing is ever as ever it’s been.
The wonder stuff in the palm of your hand
The future – it’s you in flatland.
Video and featured image credit: Jason Lock Productions