Excerpt from Linda Bierds' 11/15/11 Katz Lecture, "Second Hand: A Poet's Journey Toward Science."
Interested in the intersections of art, history, and science, Linda Bierds’ poems feature rich portraits of historical figures beyond their great achievements. Instead, she situates them in intimate, everyday moments, and by doing so presents the unique ways in which each interprets the world: Benjamin Franklin as a boy using a kite to pull himself across a pond, Beethoven being brought his ear trumpet by a small child, a young Galileo conducting experiments.