Madness To The Method

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Written on 4 June 2025 for Pick-A-Title, Vol 52 - Poetry Contest - Sponsored by: Edward Ibeh

Serendipitous Discoveries
Penicillin – Alexander Fleming (1928) accidentally Left a petri dish out while on vacation. Upon return, he found that mold (Penicillium notatum) killed surrounding bacteria.
Microwave Oven – Percy Spencer (1945) While working on radar technology, a chocolate bar in his pocket melted.
Radioactivity – Henri Becquerel (1896) Stored uranium salts in a drawer with photographic plates; discovered fogging occurred without sunlight.
Vulcanized Rubber – Charles Goodyear (1839) Spilled rubber and sulfur on a hot stove—resulting in a durable new form of rubber.
Pacemaker – Wilson Greatbatch (1956) Inserted the wrong resistor into a circuit and discovered it mimicked a human heartbeat.

chance discovery

Listen to poem:

Madness to the Method
It did not come from mode of method,
nor from the charted mind.
But sprung from a will-o'-the-wisp
spark in the blind spot shadow,
of the brain, disentangled and drifting.

The idea slipped in sideways,
from the periphery of focus,
when attention was distracted, 
by the flit of eyes glancing, 
in other ways on other days,

For the more you look, 
the less likely you are to see, 
the brilliant gems lying
invisible to naked eyes,
blinded by the wont-of-desire
for discovery, to stare intensely
at the target, and not look away.

But, it takes a touch of madness,
to notice strange occurrences,
in the clutter and debris of 
random observations falling
like ticker-tape from  
still-born mode-of-method showers, 
of collected failures-to-disprove.

It takes the madness of 
serendipity for one
to take potluck picks
in the box of tricks
smart minds often miss,
to pick winners
with happenstance.

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