Hello JSTOR my old friend[1]
I’ve come to search in you again[2]
Because a reference softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was reading[3]
And the paper that was gnawing at my brain
Still remains[4]
Within the stress of research[5]
Through restless links I searched alone
Papers from journals I do not own
Neath the halo from my desk-lamp
I turn my collar to the research lab[6]
When my eyes were stabbed by the pain
Of a sleepless night
As I tried to write
Through the stress of research[7]
And in the flickering light I saw
Ten thousand deadlines maybe more[8]
Within the stress of research
Post-doc said, ah you do not know
Research like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Read my diss’ and it might reach you
But my sources like undergrads they failed
Adding to the stress of research[9]
Then the faculty bowed and prayed
To bureaucratic gods they made
And the REF flashed out its warnings
Low impact scores were alarming[10]
And the graphs and words from students
Were projected on the classroom walls and lecture halls
Folks breaking under the stress from research[11]
Composed 31 August 2017
Extended 5 September 2017
[1] Clare @mcclare95
[2] JSTOR @JSTOR
[3] Thony Christie @rmathematicus
[4] Vivek Santayana @viveksantayana
[5] Thony Christie @rmathematicus
[6] Eric Keeton @w0wkeeton
[7] Vivek Santayana @viveksantayana
[8] Vivek Santayana @viveksantayana
[9] Eric Keeton @w0wkeeton
[10] Vivek Santayana @viveksantayana
[11] Eric Keeton @w0wkeeton
I genuinely LOL’d at this three times. Looking forward to coming back and doing it again in a day or two’s time — or sooner.
These parts are incomplete:
When my eyes were stabbed by the pain
Of a sleepless night
As I tried to write
Through the stress of research[7]
And in the flickering light I saw
Ten thousand deadlines maybe more[8]
Within the stress of research
Sorry, only the stuff after[7] is incomplete.
Also, the light is naked, not flickering (at least, that is how it is described).
Here’s my attempt:
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand articles, maybe more
All articles which I should heed
Articles I have no time to read
Articles arriving at conclusions which readers never shared
Since no-one dared
Disturb the stress of research
At Peter Cole’s blog In the Dark, I once wrote a sonnet in a comment within a few minutes of reading my motivation for doing so.
https://telescoper.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/i-could-not-sleep-for-thinking-of-the-sky/