Deborah Tannen

Tell me what you see from there
Is it lift?

Well, I know the mechanics of lift
See, when fluid flows
So force goes
Perpendicular—
That’s lift

Then is it—

I told you

I’ll tell you
What I see
It’s
The smell of the storm
The sting of the boil
The taste of clay against your lips
The weight of the gai wan
The sound of unfurling oolong
The second steeping—
That’s lift

Well, I know the mechanics of lift—

I understand
I was there last week
The mathematician, he told me
Feels like categorical coherence
Like univalence
Like an endofunctor
And, see,
I can muse all day
About wellfounded trees
But the feeling of an endofunctor remains elusive

That’s easy
It’s a functor
From a category
To itself
C to C

Sea to sea
I see
Then is it lift?

Say
I can muse all day
About gravitational waves
But the feeling of lift remains elusive

Well, I don’t know the mechanics of lift
But I can feel it
And there’s a meeting point, see
I’ll stand
Where you stand
And you’ll sit
And drink tea

But if you can’t see it
And I can’t taste it
Why bother?

1 2

I am very tired, so my feedback isn't as good as usual right now.