Poetry – Give thanks it isn’t us!

Posted on by Opher

Give thanks it isn’t us!

Slicing off the genitals

                Of the fully conscious

                                With a sharp knife

Without a thought.

Placing the severed genitals

                In a basket

                                Without regard,

Without knowing.

Carrying the spoils inside

                To the sink

                                With a smile,

Looking pleased.

Trimming the genitalia

                With scissors

                                A careful eye,

A steady hand.

Arranging them in a vase

                With water,

                                To admire

Their prettiness.

Opher 26.12.2019

I always wonder about consciousness. It is such a mystery. What is conscious? Are rocks, planets and stars conscious?

What an absurdity.

Yet is it?

Is consciousness a product of the electrical activity in our brains?

Then that same electrical activity takes place through a plant. Could they be fully conscious? Do they feel pain?

Because they do not shriek and scream does not mean they cannot feel, does it?

Feel grateful that plants do not collect the genitalia of animals!

Poetry – Cavorting

Posted on by Opher

Cavorting

Cavorting through infinity

                In a dream

                                For the whole universe

                                                Is not as it may seem.

Perhaps consciousness

                Is not rare

                                And every atom is aware

                                                That we are there?

Throughout, there is a vibration

                That connects us all.

But we can only wonder

                                                At the nature of its call.

For that is the pleasure of this journey

                As here and there

                                As we busily scurry

                                                We are largely unaware.

There are no answers to find

                Only questions to be mined.

Opher – 22.12.2019

Beware of those who are certain of anything. They are always wrong. There are no certainties. The joy is to discover the questions. For every answer connects us to further mysteries.

In a universe built on quantum there is no solid ground, not here or there.

Poetry – It’s Insane

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It’s Insane

It’s insane

Does a plant feel pain?

How would we know?

Does a plant run away?

Does it scream?

Does it laugh and play?

Is it human?

Is it sentient?

Does it think?

Do it’s emotions foment?

From its roots to its shoots

Does a plant have feelings?

When its skin ends up

Among the peelings?

Do its senses flip-flop

When its body’s for the chop?

Does it know what’s coming

When it hears the chainsaw humming?

Does a plant possess intelligence?

Does it have common sense?

Or is a plant as dead as wood?

Merely growing as it should?

It’s insane

Does a plant feel pain?

But how would we know

If it doesn’t show?

Opher – 3.2.2019

Because they cannot move or speak we assume they cannot feel.

Because they have no brain we assume they can’t feel pain.

But the latest research indicates they feel a lot more than we think.

I’ll never look at a salad in the same way again.

Poetry – Green and Red

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Green and Red

Green and red

Are the colours of life.

Green and red

The vitality

That brings dreams,

Opens eyes

And gives birth

To awareness.

Out of all the colours

Of the rainbow

It came down

To red and green.

Out of the fetid mud,

The rock and soil

That is brown,

Comes life.

And brown

Is no more

Than red and green.

Opher 26.12.2018

Haemoglobin and chlorophyll are the two substances that have most symbolized life – blood and sap.

These two – related chemicals – have given the possibility of life and consciousness.

It occurred to me that red and green make brown – the colour of soil.

Poetry – Once upon a time

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Once upon a time

A fairy tale with a happy ending.

Life’s slow evolution from such unlikely circumstance to the triumph of intelligence has to be the most remarkable story of all.

How life grew from slime to mankind without a pumpkin in sight, no fairy godmother and no wish. More remarkable than any genii in any bottle. More incredible than any story thought up by man. More wonderful than can be imagined. We are alive to look out at this incredible celestial infinity with minds enough to gasp and wish to understand.

That is my gift of a fairy tale. It is really called chance creation and evolution but I prefer to call it …. Once upon a time.

Once upon a time

Once upon a time

There was a tiny green jewel

That circled round a beautiful golden dawn.

It was on this viridian gem

That mankind was born.

Through multitudes

Of chance and death defying stance

Stretching all imagination

And every circumstance

We created this fascination.

Riding the realms of fire

Through the aeons of fury

Minds were forged that led to you and me,

Created this fantasy

And brought all life to be.

Step by slow step

Up the ladder we climbed

Blind, ignorant and by instinct primed

We sought to break the bonds

Through which we were confined.

With sight to see

We looked around with awe

At the celestial majesty outside our door

And sang a refrain upon the wind

From all the days of yore.

This is that song

Of wonder and delight

Sung to the rooftops of every resilient rafter

That we finally get it right and

All live happily ever after.

25.8.2015

Poetry – sometimes

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Sometimes

Sometimes,

It’s an age away,

Geological eras.

Sometimes

It’s seems minutes,

Mere minutes.

All in an unreal dream,

That seems to have

No end.

But will suddenly end.

Opher – 7.6.2020

The universe exists forever. Or just as long as we are here to be aware of it.

When all life has gone and there is nothing left to see it – does it still exist?

Sometimes it seems that I have been here for ever.

Sometimes I am aware that I will soon be gone.

Will it still exist without me?

Poetry – The Web

Posted on by Opher

The Web

An intricate, self-perpetuating web,

Expanding, mutating and evolving;

Interconnected, interdependent.

Full of mysteries for the solving.

Molecular complexity.

Ionic polarity.

Cellular electricity.

Spectacular diversity.

Coursing through veins,

Blood and energy,

Streaming down pathways.

Creating awareness endlessly.

Opher – 6.11.2020

I was going to call this poem life, but I thought that might detract.

I was thinking about the huge spectacular web of life that extends across the surface of this planet. It all started from one cell and now it has spawned a trillion forms and is still going.

I was thinking about our awareness, of all life’s awareness. Everything is conscious.

One day we will realise that plants and bacteria have consciousness.

What form that takes is open to wonder.

It’s full of mysteries.