you don't see what you don't look for

cDNA treats introns like mere waste
what got spliced out cannot convey the sense
the information tossed in cut-and-paste
is disregarded in our arrogance
prokaryotic genomes gently bend
but histones wind ours tightly onto spools
with telomers padding out each end
our metadata binds the text with rules
the genes are counted, but what's in between
defines how tissues differrentiate
the caterpillar munching garden greens
will only later need to aviate
the information gleaned from any book
is circumscribed by how you choose to look

Shannon Entropy

I dreamed that you could understand the code that I'd devised
devoid of ambiguity as plain as broad daylight
and anyone who heard or read could look out through my eyes
a sweet, seductive fantasy that helped me sleep at night
I rushed to put it down in ink the moment I awoke
but trains of baggage came along with every word I chose
the clarity was the mirage, and all I clutched was smoke
that through my fingers oozed away and to the stars arose
Retreat! Retrench! at least in math, we share communion pure
that isn't just conventional, transparent to us all

but Gödel interjects to say I must not be so sure

an edifice on such a base in time may also fall
self-organized, dream-words conform to heptametric verse
so somewhere, entropy must grow, within my universe

utility function

'phage Lambda's genome was a trip to map
there's too  much information for the space
until you grasp the genes all overlap
three reading-frames, three meanings for each base
where each mutation must affect three genes
Darwinian selection is impaired
each quantum change is tripled and that means
lethality more often than repair
but evolution needs variety
selecting small improvements from the stack
immobile in thy fearful symmetry
the Red Queen's Race will drop you off the pack
such density in code comes at a cost
improvement opportunities are lost

knowledge

the Library of Babel holds it all
and so, of information, it's devoid
each Truth and Error, be it great of small
is there in mixtures or pure, unalloyed
retrieval times tend towards the infinite
and formulating queries takes too long
to put your faith in what comes out of it
ignores that almost all of it is wrong
they're only data 'til we simplify
and analyse--not just enumerate
in getting beyond "what" to explore "why"
in simplifying, we communicate
among raw inputs, wisdom's hard to find
that has to come from a discerning mind