Poetry – I am an accident – a ode to the wonder of life

Posted on by Opher

I am an accidentMy never ending fascination with reality continues. I love everything to do with the universe, life and infinity. It is amazing.I have found no answers. I do not think there are answers in any of the holy books. They seem to me to be men (very few women) trying to find answers to the perennial questions of life and death. I suspect there are no answers. I see verses of poetry, moral instruction and political rhetoric from millennia gone by. Teachings that are meant to illustrate life and answer our questions and fears concerning the after-life. I do not find them convincing. What I do see is the way they are used by politicians and religious leaders to gain power and influence, accumulate wealth, live in luxury and control others. Religion is not about providing answers so much as creating prestige and raising people up. It is a weapon of the establishment to control the masses.The reality of space, time and life is far stranger than anything written in holy books from semi-civilised times. We are only now piercing the world of quantum mechanics, subatomic particles and the mysteries of the Big Bang. There is an underlying chaos within the order. There is a conundrum.Humans love mystery. I am human. Rather than create creeds to indoctrinate children with and foster hatred I would prefer to appreciate the wonder of a sunrise, the splendour of a creature or the beauty of a landscape. If there is such a thing as spirituality then I believe it is within those things, plus a little love and friendship – not any book of words.I believe the universe, and life, is the result of random chaos, chance and a few basic physical laws. Nothing more. We are all accidents worth celebrating. The fact that we are here and able to appreciate it is as near to a miracle as I’m ever likely to get. If that isn’t worthy of celebration what is?I am an accident I am a single accidentIn a universe of accidents.Each moment is a complete new universeTo experience and explore,Loose within the fabric of organised chaos.No one thing is left to chance;Everything is left to chance.My mind churns through the possibilitiesSeeking answersAll I see from humanityAre lies, deception and disease.We taint the purityWith the halitosis of our words.Even the holiest wordsBecome profane abuseTo facilitate powerRancour and hatred.The mystery of chance is encapsulatedBetween the lines.That is where the truth of eternity lies –Between the liesBetween the linesBetween the signs……… Opher 23.1.2016If you enjoy my poems or anecdotes why not purchase a paperback of anecdotes for £7.25 or a kindle version for free.http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anecdotes-Weird-Science-Writing-Ramblings/dp/1519675631/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-3&keywords=opher+goodwinOr a book of poetry and comment:Rhyme and Reason – just £3.98 for the paperback or free on Kindlehttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhymes-Reason-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1516991184/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457515636&sr=1-4&keywords=opher+goodwinMy other books are here:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1457515636&sr=1-2-entThank you and please leave a review.

A Trillion Reactions

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A Trillion Reactions

A trillion reactions a second.

                A trillion jolts of electricity.

A trillion tiny elements

                Adding up to one massive miracle.

A network of tiny circuits

                Of chemical switches,

Of binary choices,

                Adding up to a colossal

                                Unlikelihood.

A mesh of interconnecting strands

                Of pulses

                                Streaming along,

                                                Of waves

Of polarisation,

                Coalescing.

The sum of chemical parts

                Adding up

To touch

                To sounds

                                To awareness

                                                To pictures

In my mind.

A trillion reactions a second.

                The sum total

                                Of who

                                                I am.

Opher 15.3.23

I am conscious.

That is beyond me and everyone else. We take it for granted.

I am conscious.

I am nothing more than a trillion reactions a second.

How does that work?

Those reactions give me a whole universe.

A miracle of nature.

A product of three billion years of evolving complexity, more wondrous that the universe itself.

A one of?

So incredibly unlikely.

Yet it has happened. I am here. My reactions wrote this.

I’m going to sit here and contemplate that for a minute or two.

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 – Words are not enough

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Words are not enough

Words are not enough.

They never can be.

Words paint pictures

But do they connect?

Are the words the same

For you and me?

Can words do justice

To a majestic vision?

A leaf in words

Is not a leaf.

A sunset

Cannot be described.

I use my words to paint pictures

In your mind.

But they are pale imitations

Of reality.

We always fall short.

Even our reality

Is a pale imitation

Of what really is.

Our limitations

Make us fail.

Our senses are too few;

Our mind too little

Opher – 18.11.2019

I am always struggling with realisation that what we see is not real. The world is filtered through a limited number of senses. There is so much we do not see. Our minds interpret the electric patterns and turn them into pictures. But our minds are tiny; our perceptions limited. The world we see is not the world that is. It is so much less.

When we attempt to use words to describe the world we must always fall short – for even the greatest poet cannot use such limited symbols that connect in ambiguous ways, to describe a partially understood phenomenon. We must always fall short.

Poetry – I Opened a Door

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I Opened a Door

I opened a door

                And let the universe in.

I opened a mind

                And made dreams real.

I think

                And it exists.

I live

                In a storm of electricity.

Opher – 7.12.2021

The whole of our awareness of the universe is nothing more than the firings of neurones. Our senses feed back in electricity. Our brains create electric nets. None of it is real.

Connect us up to the right impulse and we could see, feel, taste, touch and smell anything, anything at all.

Perhaps that is where we are right now – in the laboratory of a mad scientist.

Reality is a dream

Maybe we create it?

Poetry – Life is the expression of art

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Life is the expression of art

I’m real because I dream.

                I live because I think,

                                I wonder because it’s unreal.

Nothing makes sense.

                Wonder is all there is.

Dreams are the vehicle.

Life is the expression of art.

Opher – 7.12.2021

I was in one of those philosophical moods. Nothing is real. The universe is too awesome for us to comprehend.

Life is art. We’re making it up as we go.

Poetry – Do Planets Dream?

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Do Planets Dream?

Do planets dream as they embrace their moon?

Are galaxies dancing to a cosmic tune?

Is our sun prancing in great glee

As it hugs us with its gravity?

What is this beautiful music of infinity?

Something sublime including you and me?

I think I can hear it as I stare up into the sky.

It vibrates through me as I quietly sigh.

Opher 17.9.2019

I love to think of Gaia and the planets being alive. What is this thing we call consciousness?

Is there a universal vibration running through the universe connecting everything?

Poetry -The Whole World

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The Whole World

One neurone – nothing.

Two neurones – nothing.

A hundred billion neurones in a network –

You have the whole world

And me.

Opher – 21.6.2019

I occasionally have a little awe and wonder to throw at consciousness. Our brain is a fabulous electric blancmange. Our consciousness is wondrous. It is great, every now and again, to stop and think about it.

That is amazing. A brain thinking about itself with the mechanisms for thought it possesses.

So little we understand – so much still to learn.

What is clear to me is that these 100 billion neurones, all strung together in a wondrous network, supported by hundreds of billions of glial cells, connected to a limited number of senses, perceiving a fraction of what is around us, are doing a fabulous job of creating both me and the universe!

Stupendous!

Here’s to consciousness!!

Poetry – Consciousness – a poem

Posted on by Opher

Consciousness – a poem

Firing electricity through

Throbbing pink jelly

To create

A version of reality.

Altering perception

Flooding with chemistry

Making

A new world to see.

An unreal world

Not the real deal

Just Biology

Pretending to be real.

Opher 22.6.2019

I’m always fascinated by our consciousness. We really believe we see and feel the universe as it is – which, of course, is a joke. All our consciousness is, is a product of chemistry and electricity.

If we stimulated our sensory nerves the brain would perceive things that did not exist. It makes things up anyway. What we see is not what it is.

Flood your brain with chemicals and reality changes.

Our conscious is a construct. It is not real.

We Came From Oblivion

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We Came From Oblivion

We came from oblivion and opened our eyes

Upon a wondrous universe.

We lived to fill each second with marvels.

We lived to the full.

Then we closed our eyes

And went back to the oblivion

From whence we had come.

There were no fairy tales;

No reawakenings;

No meetings,

Just oblivion.

It was not long enough.

It is never long enough.

Yet it was long enough.

Opher – 5.3. 2017

It seems so human to me to attempt to deal with death by imagining mystical reunions, reincarnations or an afterlife in some future world that lasts for ever.

I see us as biological organisms living in a physical universe of wonder.

I think it is amazing. That is enough for me.

Life is an amazing phenomenon.

Life is to be lived to the maximum. Not to waste a second. It is rarely long enough.