The two experiments

In this poem, taken from my collection Guerrilla Country (Flight of the Dragonfly Press, 2024), I play with the idea that Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626), often accused of setting us off on the road towards environmental catastrophe with his image of ‘putting Nature on the [torture] rack’, was in fact more far-sighted than we gave him credit for. The poem is intended as being in his voice.

The two experiments 

Nature to be commanded must be obeyed… 
For it is no more but by following and as it were 
hounding Nature in her wanderings, 
to be able to lead her afterwards to the same place again.
—Sir Francis Bacon (Novum Organum & The Advancement of Learning)

That I accepted gifts
as due by virtue of
my offices of State
is not in doubt. The only 
question that remains
is did they move—or stay—
my counsel to the King?

And therefore I propose
a pure experiment:
had I accepted gifts
so those who proffered them
might not be found at fault,
then gifts and Innocence
would surely correlate.

The facts show they do not.
The Histories will show
I put the needs of Prince 
and State above my own.
But offices can hang. 
Let us devise instead
a durable experiment:

we strive to master Nature
by our art and hand,
by turning how she works
to serve our measured ends,
then count the years till springs
and riverbeds run dry—
until she masters us.