Poetry – Mighty Coil – a poem to the chemistry of life! May it go on forever!
Mighty Coil
I was lying in bed this morning on my birthday thinking about age, life and the future. Time passes.
The grandchildren are on their way with my daughter. They will be here shortly to help me celebrate. They are the future as I move into the past.
The real celebration is the fact that they share my DNA – we all do. Resounding down through the ages, from the very first cell, and on into the distant future.
Humans might not last long but DNA is shared with all life; we are all family.
Those four bases spell out a code that contains our whole history, eloquently recorded for a long time to come.
No life is more evolved than any other. We come from the same cell. We have lived the same length.
I tried to capture the convolutions of the DNA molecule with its rungs like a ladder and four base code that contains a wealth of information. Our whole past is written there. I used the word base in both meaning. We are a base species. But we are not the culmination. More is to come. Maybe the future forms of life will evolve to be something greater than we have managed. We are a disappointment – we promised so much.
I do not pretend to understand how DNA originated or incorporated into that first mother cell. Life is mystery. But humans are inquisitive and great at problem solving. Maybe one day we will know (if we survive long enough).
So on this birthday I celebrate life in all its forms and will drink a toast to the wonders of DNA – the wonder chemical that has given us all we are.
Here’s to you DNA and all your twists and turns! The story isn’t over yet!
Mighty Coil
Little coil of chemistry
That conducts my life,
Convoluting through the ages
Conjugating man and wife.
Rungs upon a ladder
Of our family tree,
Mutating and growing
Into great complexity.
You tell the whole story
Of life under this sky;
Within your base structure
Is the tale of you and I.
I wish I could understand
How you came to be.
Perhaps time will unravel
You great mystery.
A simple code of four
Spells out your majesty;
So eloquently spelt –
What was, is and will be.
Opher 30.5.2016
You always write it all so well. Happy Birthday Opher!… And many more to come! 😀☀️
Cheers Myth – you’re a shining star!
Bless your heart! No kinder words this day! 🙏 😀 🤗
Well there should be! You deserve kind words all the time!
WordPress, not so much. My offline life Very Much so! Loving people and Thank you Opher!
Cheers Myth. You brighten my day.
Cheers to you too Opher! And I hope you had a Happy Birthday! ☀️
Cheers Myth. All is great – apart from the election!
Hello Opher! I’m sorry about “apart from the election”. I have spent time reading this morning. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-32810887 my goodness! Here in the US there is a lot of political BS going on as well! As you well know, change can cause more damage than good. Through the unforeseen future, don’t lose sight of your well being! ☀️
Myth – I cannot help thinking that the world is becoming nastier and more stupid by the minute.
It seems obvious to me that partnership is better, and safer, than isolation. It seems much better to work together than to divide. I despise nationalism and the answer to the world’s problems of overpopulation, climate change, religious and political fanaticism, species extinction, deforestation, pollution, drought, starvation, sea level rises and many more, lie in working together on a global level.
Instead we have a mad popularist drive to create walls, borders and threats.
Poor people, whose lives are ruined by greedy billionaire profiteers turn to greedy billionaire profiteers to save them. That is like walking into the lions den.
I despair of mankind.
Opher, I feel your despair of mankind in your words. I grew up in an upper-middle-class family.Upper/middle class doesn’t even exist anymore. Either you’re rich, or your poor! So many people are losing their homes because minimum wage doesn’t even pay their rent! I have volunteered with the homeless for the last three or four years of my life. So much of society looks down on the homeless because they think they’re all on drugs, or they’re drunks. There are a lot of homeless people who want off the streets but it takes so much money just to put a down payment on an apartment. Many fall to the wayside because the suffering they must endure needs pacifying. Then sadly, drugs and alcohol far too often comes into play. All it would take is a few billionaires to Fork out some money to build the facilities or help fund empty buildings and warehouses for these people to live in warmth and comfort and find their dignity again! Walls simply make people feel worthless. We seem to be going backwards instead of forward in our world. Privilege belongs to all men all women and children. The right to live in comfort. Our president is getting ready to take away food stamps from at least 700, 000 recipients. I’m not sure how much more people can take in this country, your country, and around the world!? But if governments keep taking away from the people, crime is going to continue to go up again, an innocent lives will suffer for it. Human emotions are all over the board! It has been time for a change for a long time! And I think it should start with the governments.Opher, just keep sharing your thoughts in words young people are smart! They will read your words! Can you imagine being 25 years old in this world today!? Breathe easy dear man… There is still So much beauty in the world! Everybody just has to come up with a way so that everyone can endure it! ☀️😀🤗
Myth – you have encapsulated my anger and despair. I feel we live in a world that is increasingly divided into haves and have nots. It is greedy and selfish and increasingly heartless. The richest in society see nothing wrong in robbing the poorest so that they can become even richer. They already have more than they can spend yet are happy to throw people into despair, homelessness and suicide in order to get more. I think it is morally obscene. Yet I bet these good folk go to church.
But you are right. There is always a sunset.
Reminds me of Dylan’s Chimes of Freedom.
Being rich is not a privilege it’s a mistake! A lost value and what it really means to be rich! Everything in this world mankind has created,with the exception of nature! And the chaos is atrocious! The greatest divide is government and its people. One of the biggest atrocities I’ve ever seen is War veterans who come home and end up homeless!! While people fight amongst each other for the most ridiculous things…skin color preferences, beliefs, envy, jealousy Etc. it’s all a travesty! Remember Janis Joplin and her song ‘Me and Bobby McGee’? Remember the line ‘Freedom’s just another word for Nothing Left to Lose’? We’re getting their man. But until then I’ll never forget that I’ve been on both sides of the tracks rich and poor, poor and rich, however you want to look at it. And this woman is soaking up the Sun and breathing deeply as long as I can! ☀️😀 All is not lost not yet!!
Opher, the brass ring is all things beautiful and all things that make us feel better about being alive!! ☀️
Myth – I think you are right on all counts. Wealth is a great trap. We are a violent species who behave primitively in tribal ways. Race and religion, wealth and greed – they are all excuses. I love that song! and then you’ve got Dylan’s – when you’ve got nothing you’ve got nothing to lose.
Nature is the big healer! Soak up that sun, breathe deep! The universe is beautiful. Enjoy.
Ha! I gave a lot of my money away to people who needed it way more than me. I find great joy in living humble, while being kind to people around me the best I can. And that is something I wholeheartedly believe that we could all do at least the majority of us if we just lay down our weapons.(negativity) but of course we all have to learn through experiences at our own pace. Less the load, lighter the life!☀️ How important will it be as we all lie one day in our dying bed and wonder how important was it to always be right, and to have spent so much energy on hate without ever really having a legitimate reason! it really is about who we are inside isn’t it, when we hate, when we love, when we forgive? about a month before my mom had gotten ill we were having a wonderful conversation about being mother daughter and about life, she was talking about everything she achieved in her life and my dad and she looked at me and she said you know when “I die I can’t take any of this with me”. And I never forgot what she had said to me. And I wonder… What the hell is everybody fighting for, what is everyone hating for, not one single bit of it matters in the end? And love, so many people are missing out on love! There is a wonderful song (lyrics) by Linkin Park titled ‘In The End, sometimes I wish you could be played all across the world at once.
Wrap yourself in Beauty Opher, men deserve just as much beauty as women do, and especially children!
Peace to you and yours! ☀️😀
Peace to you to Myth. It sounds like you have got your head exactly where it should be. Greed and hate are destroying this planet and it is all so stupid and pointless. I wish people would wake up to nature and beauty! All we need is love!
Yes! Especially to be aware of it when we each may be going through hard times and heartbreak. Love Never Fails us, we fail love! All we need is love! ☀️🙌😀 Bless your heart!
That’s right – we need more of it! It used to be there. What’s happened?
I believe that love has been intercepted by high expectations of who we really are, and lack of acceptance in differences.
Love is still within us all, and I think people are starving for it! Poets and writers have been writing about love for centuries. Love should have always been our sanity, our reality. We need to turn off our televisions and open our hearts to one another and listen to one another. It’s okay to care about complete strangers! Friends and lovers husbands and wives all start out as strangers!
People need each other!
I think what’s happened looking back, Society started slowly going out of control when TV talk shows arrived. It just seemed like overnight everyone was starting to yell at each other in public as if it was acceptable behavior? And so many other factors have come into play. I think it’s going to take a huge world catastrophe for people to come together again. When tragedy strikes people realize how small we really are and so we come together so beautifully
when those moments occur.☀️
Myth – it seems to me that we are living in times of fear and division, intolerance and hatred. I think that I would pinpoint 9/11 as the pivotal point. It went into everyone’s psyche. It provoked a reaction that has been exploited by ruthless politicians. They worked on that fear and division, offered bans, walls and repatriation. We had this enemy within that we had to arm ourselves against. I think it has destroyed the tolerance and love. It resulted in Trump, Johnson, Brexit and Bolsonaro. All around the world we have these right-wingers promoting hatred and division, nationalism and anti-immigration. We are demonising.
Time for love, tolerance and understanding. Time to end the extreme inequality.
So well said Opher! In the 90’s I was in the center of a lot of violence, I have seen the division first hand! People need Something to Believe In, a foundation to start healing? Until then I wish you a beautiful Christmas! It is late on my end, but it’s December 21, and I always stay up after midnight on this date to light a candle in the memory of my dad who passed away on the first day of winter, and a long winter it has been…
Take good care, and keep writing your words to the world, they are important!! I hope you are indeed surrounded by love!☀️
A Merry Christmas to you Myth! I wish you all the best for the new year! Light the candle and bring some light into the world. All the very best!
Thank you so much! 😀
You are more than welcome.
I’ve been reading quite a bit of your writing today. (Indoors only because of the brisk weather) I’m impressed, you can write about everything! I appreciate the fairness in your writing. As I’m sure many of your readers do as well! Nice job!☀️
I an honoured that you should spend your time in that way. I write about what interests me – that is all. I feel passionate about a lot of things. But I bet I piss off more people than I turn on.
‘But I bet I piss off more people than I turn on.’… I think your writing presents a wonderful opportunity for great conversation between people! Pissing people off is their own choice!! 😇☀️ Enjoy your writing Opher!!
Thank you Myth. You are such an inspiration. I love my writing and I don’t mind pissing people off – it’s part of the job!
😀🤗
I’m sorry I hit send too soon. Loving people and accepting them just the way they are has beautiful humbling rewards! ☀️😀
Tolerance and love usually wins through in the end!