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the solution to our worries so profoundly we rear back
and laugh at them. Or, for those without
a sense of humor, math can be as simple as buttoning
a blouse, really: after you misfeed the first button,
though, every move of the hand, no matter how sincere,
becomes a lie.
The poem's undertaking is audacious -- speaking as Einstein. The quiet, convincing directness in handling that last figure of speech about miscalculating and misbuttoning is successful. By evoking American history from unexpected, unsettling angles, Jordan demonstrates poetry's power to be at once intimate and wide-ranging.
(A. Van Jordan's poem "Flashback" is from his book "Quantum Lyrics: Poems." Norton. Copyright 2007 by A. Van Jordan.)
Robert Pinsky's new book of poetry is "Gulf Music."
![[slate.com logo]](http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2007/09/27/GR2007092701096.GIF)
