My own poem for this fortnight was written after Classic FM’s reminiscences of The Argonauts for the 90th anniversary of the ABC. I thought it might appeal to some other ‘baby boomers’- even some science nerds!

Archimedes 40 (unpublished)

Canberra 1950s and every night at 5.00

while the sun set over the blue Brindabellas

and the first wood fire-sprites curled into the sky

I’d squat on our leather pouffe

huddled by the radio—

A grand affair, in a cabinet all to itself

with wooden doors – pale in the middle

dark bevelled edges. I’d half shut them—

my ‘cave’. All the better to enter the new world

of The Argonauts…

None of my friends were argonauts

They listened to ‘Hop Harrigan’ instead

on the commercial channel, (banned in our house)

constantly regaling me with Hop’s adventures

I countered, unconvinced myself at first

with my membership of a special club

A Gathering of Heroes, with our special names

from fifty mythical Greek oarsmen

who sailed the seas in vast boats –

Row Oarsmen row… Merry oarsmen row…

in search of the magic Golden Fleece.

The special name did it!

Soon my friends were jealous of Archimedes 40

the ‘club’, and the competitions— where your

name could be read out loud on the radio!

Imagine such a thing in these cynical times

with adulthood thrust so early upon us …

Instant entertainment for every taste

from the gutter to the stars, and everything between

But a radio ‘club’ for would be ‘argonauts’

sessions on nature and classical music, competitions

where the prizes were certificates with pictures

of a ‘golden fleece’…or your name being read out

on the radio --could never happen now…

(Come with a hop, a skip and a run. Come for the Session! Come for the fun!)

Now I search Mr. Google for history of my hero

Being Greek mythology, there are many lists :

‘The names of 25 known argonauts’…Archimedes is not there!

‘The list of ‘agreed upon’ argonauts ‘…not there

‘More agreed upon’ argonauts’…or there

Then ‘Men who might have been argonauts’…not there

Finally ‘some names mentioned as argonauts but

which made little sense’...not even there

Archimedes was no argonaut!

Even better, he was a real hero, rather

than a mythic one—an impressive one:

The greatest philosopher, physicist, engineer

in ancient history –mathematician, astronomer

Something in my distant memory

of high school physics speaks to me of bath-water?

A see a picture of an old guy with a curly beard

sitting in an overflowing bath saying Ah Ha!

Such a wonderful discovery!

They say he ran into the streets naked,

crying ‘Eureka’ –the *The Archimedes principle!

So I was a ‘principle‘ not an argonaut

triumph of brain over brawn

science over mythology, a bath not a boat

But both were intrepid water voyages!