In July 2024 the IAP ran a webinar called ‘Programming Provoking Poetry’.

Yes, poetry. If you’re thinking, how does poetry relate to the activities and concerns of the IAP and its members, you need to read the works and poems by Paul Lynham, BSc (Hons) MSc PGCE FIAP.

Paul’s prose are about science, technology, biology, chemistry, medicine, software, and nature. They are concerned with debugging code, the issues of getting software to run on target machines and good programming goals such as flexibility, simplicity, fidelity and the avoidance of brittle software and entropy.

Paul’s webinar was about software development, seen through the lens of poetry. One of Paul’s poems ‘The Pensiveness of Coding’, taken from Paul’s published collection called ‘Kata Poems: Exercises of The Mind’, was about reflecting on what you should keep at the front of your mind while programming: fidelity, flexibility, entropy, simplicity and the Gordian Knot (a term used to describe a complicated problem). He asks us to bear in mind that software is not purely engineering.

A webinar attendee said: “Paul read his poetry and talked about significant concepts. I enjoyed his enthusiasm, passion for the subject and knowledge.”

To see the webinar on YouTube go to: www.youtube.com/watch-programming-provocing-poetry.

Paul is a published author and has several publications on Amazon. His books can be found at: www.amazon.co.uk/paul-lynham.