A modest Scheme poem

4 March 2025 ⋅ Back to blog index

Powerless and desperate as I am in these troubled times, I will not publish grandiloquent considerations about the current situation. Instead let me offer a poem I wrote years ago in the programming language Scheme. It is short and modest. Nevertheless, I'm quite proud of it. I advise to take it not as an invitation to hope, but lucidity.

You may entertain yourself by learning enough Scheme (in the flavor of the Guile implementation) to figure out what it returns, or simply paste it in a guile3.0 interactive prompt. (Do not run it from a file, as the Guile prompt imports some extra modules.)

(let ((be values))
  (when values
    (yield)
    *unspecified*)
  (if values
      (do ()
        (not
         (values be quit)))))

As a bonus, here is an even more modest amusement. Behold the λ-cube:

                     ((λ ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
                                                                                 (λ)
             ;;;;;                                                             ;;;;;
           ;;;;         ;;;                                              ;;;;;;  ;;;
        ;;;;;                                                        ;;;;;;;     ;;;
      ;;;               ;;;                                      ;;;;;;;         ;;;
   ;;;;;                                                       ;;;;;;;           ;;;
  (λ ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;                 ;;;
                                                                  λ))            ;;;
   ;;;                  ;;;                                       ;;;            ;;;
   ;;;                                                            ;;;            ;;;
   ;;;                  ;;;                                       ;;;            ;;;
   ;;;                                                            ;;;            ;;;
   ;;;                  ;;;                                       ;;;            ;;;
   ;;;                                                            ;;;            ;;;
   ;;;                  ;;;                                       ;;;            ;;;
   ;;;                                                            ;;;            ;;;
   ;;;                  ;;;                                       ;;;            ;;;
   ;;;                                                            ;;;            ;;;
   ;;;                  ;;;                                       ;;;            ;;;
   ;;;                                                            ;;;            ;;;
   ;;;                  ;;;                                       ;;;            ;;;
   ;;;                                                            ;;;            ;;;
   ;;;                  ;;;                                       ;;;            ;;;
                       (λ ;;;  ;;; ;;; ;;; ;;; ;;; ;;; ;;; ;;;    ;;;     ;;; ;;;;;;
                                                                                (λ)
   ;;;          ;;;;;                                             ;;;         ;;;;;
   ;;;        ;;;;;                                               ;;;        ;;;;;
   ;;;     ;;;;                                                   ;;;      ;;;;;
   ;;;  ;;;;                                                      ;;;  ;;;;;;
   ;;;;;;                                                         ;;;;;;;;;;
  (λ ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
                                                                   λ)))

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