I need to make a small request,
addressed to one and all;
regarding something which I find
drives me quite up the wall.
I'm sorry if you find this wish
offensive or pedantic;
but it concerns a habit which
quite frankly, drives me frantic.
When thinking for yourself, or if
dispensing sage advice,
say what you mean to say, and let
your language be precise.
When landing in a plane, who wants
to hear the pilot say,
"We're not quite on the runway, but
it isn't far away"?
While treating my thrombosis, if
the surgeon missed the clot,
I'd hate to hear the scoundrel say
"I almost got the lot".
If fuzzy logic is your thing,
take it from one who knows
that thinking which is indistinct
may lead to your repose;
I mean of the eternal sort,
within a pearly gate;
for Heaven is chock full of those
who got it right too late.
Be accurate in what you think,
in all you do and say;
for danger lurks when we employ
the concept 'propinque'.
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Author Notes
Image: By Eastdept (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Lotfi Zadeh is known as "the father of fuzzy logic". I had the great pleasure of meeting him when I was a student of AI at university. He came across as an incredibly caring and thoughtful man. Highly intelligent goes without saying. He died last year at age 96.
Today's word:
propinque: approximate, approaching accuracy.
Note: after my initial version of this poem, I learned the correct pronunciation is "pro-pin-kway" (many thanks to frierajac). This resulted in a modification of the last stanza to maintain the rhyme!
My much-treasured Christmas present for 2017 is a book by Paul Anthony Jones: "The cabinet of linguistic curiosities". Each page contains a descriptive story about some obscure or archaic word. It occurred to me it would be a fun exercise to try and write, each day, a poem featuring the "word of the day" from the book.
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