Brad Hoge

I am a poet and a scientist, and I cannot escape either compulsion. As a poet, I serve as the managing editor of Dark Matter, an online journal exploring natural metaphor. My first full-length book of poetry, Nebular Hypothesis, was recently published by Cawing Crow Press. My poems appear in numerous literary journals and anthologies including The Transnational, Event Horizon, Gravel, 200 New Mexico Poems, Chronogram, Tertulia, Stickman Review, and Tar Wolf Review. I also have chapbooks published by Kattywompus Press, Red Berry Editions, and two by Plain View Press. I live in Spring, TX with my wife and three children.

As a scientist, I am fascinated by the details of reality, the unfolding of explanation for natural phenomena. I am inspired by the cold universe, the music of strings played without need for consciousness. But I am also driven by a search for meaning, not mystical, but satisfying to my own mind. Whether emergent property or not, it is human consciousness that imposes meaning onto the quantum fabric of reality.

And this is where I find joy in natural metaphor. The opportunity to predict what is beyond science, but still within the realm of reality. Not available to experiment, but not reliant on mystical thinking. Exploration of the unknown without restraint of theory, but without giving up on reason. The imposition of reason into discourse by questioning whether it is the Higgs boson that provides substance to our universe, or the thoughts and ideas that convert matter and energy into art.