To Lipton Is To Clarify Poem by gershon hepner

To lipton is to clarify the thoughts
that, obfuscating in a swamp
had seemed impossible to comp-
rehend, responding to them with retorts
that elevate them from the misty murk
where, incoherent, they lay garbled,
and polish them till they are marbled,
delightful to new-comprehending clerk.

Should you, too, want to lipton you must listen
to thoughts unworthy of a sage
with focused interest, and engage
with half-baked apercus until they glisten;
that way you may find out that when you lipton
you can transform what Go called night,
illuminating it with light
that super men associate with krypton.

The appreciation of Peter Lipton below comes from someone called Rachel who wrote in her bog, http: //idlethink.wordpress.com regarding the late lamented Professor of the Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University, whose life ended with tragic suddenness on November 25,2007:

He did this thing I only half-jokingly coined a verb for - to Lipton, I have told people, is to listen to the most garbled, incoherent,
muddle-headed drivel that periodically emits from a student or otherwise member of an audience, and to restate it back at them in the most crystal clear terms, so that whatever point hidden in its murky depths is rescued & borne out of the swamps of obfuscation to receive enlightenment from high seriously. Liptoning also involves clarifying complexity with enviable panache, but always without an iota of hubris - always that incredible modesty and respect for what one does not know - in short, to be an ideal teacher and thinker. What a gift! and how it suffers so, diluted in this stuttering eulogy, a murky swamp of words within which is buried the most heartfelt admiration for a great man and his work.'

11/29/07