Poetry – I Can’t Help It!

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I Can’t Help It!

I can’t help it!

I have a section missing!

It’s not my fault!

Spelt out in DNA code

Missing on my Y –

The ability to iron or fold,

To notice dirt,

To dance,

To knit or sew!

All missing!

It’s not my fault!

I’m disabled!

There’s a whole section missing.

I can’t help it!

Opher – 12.5.2019

Where did it all go wrong? Why am I so inept at so many things? I guess it’s just genetic!

I was born that way. My Y chromosome is a stunted little thing with so much missing! Who would have thought that the genes for ironing, folding and noticing dirt would all be on the section that is missing?

So sad. I feel so helpless! But it’s not my fault is it?

Poetry – Sequenced

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Sequenced

Sequenced in my DNA

Is all the life that’s ever been,

Spelt in letters.

From the first to now;

Every blueprint;

Every morph;

In mutations

Graphically recorded

Opher 4.4.2018

It’s not just the functioning DNA. There is much obsolete DNA called satellite DNA. All that coding that once meant so much spelling out our history.

Each one of our cells contains the story of life.

Poetry – Returning

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Returning

Each second that we live we dare,

And in death too we give to share,

We are all part of the great cycle

and return to the plants, animals and air.

No atom do we hold for long

No matter how cold and strong

We are part of a great wheel

That holds us all where we belong.

Connected through our DNA

Through the realms of eternity

To life in all its panoply

We have our time in which to play.

The time of stars has different span

To that enjoyed by plant and man

So enjoy it while you can

That is the essence of my plan.

Opher 10.12.2017

Every three months most of our cells are replaced. We change our bodies four times a year. The molecules come in and out. There are no barriers to the recycling. The atoms do not change. We are part of it all.

Nothing of our bodies is permanent. Change is the key.

The only permanence we have is what is contained in our DNA. We pass the codes down through the generations.

Our lives are short. We merely glimpse the magic of the universe and are gone in the blink of an eye. But our codes live on for longer. We live down the generations through our DNA. We are part of the big cycle of life on this planet. Our task is to appreciate it.

Poetry – Mighty Coil

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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

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. M<ore 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!

Poetry – I’m a Bit of a Monkey

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I’m a Bit of a Monkey

We’re all bits of monkeys –

Monkeys that evolved into apes.

We monkey around all day

Performing the most incredible japes.

We’re the apes with the big brains and mean disposition,

The intelligence and altruism.

We’re the consciousness perfectors

And tax inspectors,

The apes that went to the moon.

We think we’re so clever, and we know it

Preening the remains of our hair,

Just to show it,

And prancing like overgrown loons.

I like melon and I like grape

I’m happy to be an ape.

Opher 15.8.2015

A Bit of a Monkey

My Mum always told me I was a bit of a monkey; little did she know.

We think that we’re so clever that we’re not even animals. We have been made by some divine hand from scratch.

But I know I’m an overgrown ape. I have all the DNA to prove it and no sign of an oversize finger-print.

I share a lot of my DNA with monkeys – we’re distant cousins.

Poetry – We Are Of It

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We are of it.

All part of it,

                In it,

                                Of it.

Not apart.

It lives in us.

We are all one.

                Not superior,

                                No order,

Not apart.

All part of the same,

                The whole,

                                The oneness.

Equal.

All fired by

                The same,

                                Chemistry.

Metaphysically.

Not apart.

Connected.       

Oneness.

Sacred.

Opher – 19.10.2020

All life on this planet started from the same magical beginning. Only once. We are all related. That protein/DNA construct we call life began and has propagated itself into a myriad of self-replicating forms. It has learnt to swim, to walk, to crawl and talk, to fly and wonder. It is aware. It is conscious. It can think.

It is not just us that is important, not just us that is aware. All of life shares these attributes.

Life is aware.

We are part of something spectacular and sacred, not apart from it.

Poetry – Once

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Once

Once,

Just chance,

Making matter talk.

Once,

Pure fluke,

Making matter walk.

Awareness,

Consciousness,

Out of thin air.

Extravagance,

Outrageousness

Everywhere.

Exploding awareness

On a mad spiral ride.

Civilised stupidity

That cannot be denied.

We were arrogantly

Separated

From the cosmic thread.

Now we pay the price

For not using our head.

Once,

We were

All together.

Now,

Apart,

In hostile weather.

Opher – 17.10.2020

Out of inert matter chance unleashed thought, life blossomed. Just once. Just here. We were part of it. Breathing the same air. Sharing the same DNA. A marvel.

But we became separated, thought we were somehow different, that we were superior.

We destroyed the very thing we are part of, the web of wonder that gives us life.

Now we put ourselves in danger.

Poetry – The River

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The River

It flows continuously,

Always different

Yet the same.

We grow continuously,

Always different

Yet the same.

Molecules flow through.

Replacing all,

Yet we remain.

Every three months,

New bodies,

The smile the same.

The river of the cosmos

Flows through,

An endless game.

Opher – 17.10.2020

For us the changes of age come slowly even though the changes are much faster. Cells die and are replaced. Every three months we have a new body, yet it is built to the same plan.

The molecules flow in and the molecules flow out like water flowing down a river.

We look the same but we are always different.

Poetry – The River

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The River

It flows continuously,

Always different

Yet the same.

We grow continuously,

Always different

Yet the same.

Molecules flow through.

Replacing all,

Yet we remain.

Every three months,

New bodies,

The smile the same.

The river of the cosmos

Flows through,

An endless game.

Opher – 17.10.2020

For us the changes of age come slowly even though the changes are much faster. Cells die and are replaced. Every three months we have a new body, yet it is built to the same plan.

The molecules flow in and the molecules flow out like water flowing down a river.

We look the same but we are always different.

Poetry – Spirals of Life

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Spirals of Life

Spiralling through the galaxy

On a wondrous strand.

All life mapped out

In the palm of my hand.

All connected.

You and me.

Everything that breathes –

One family.

One continuous body

Made up of many parts.

In sap and blood

Brains and hearts.

All connected.

You and me.

Everything that breathes –

One family.

We all read the same code –

The same four letters.

Free as the wind

Without fetters.

All connected.

You and me.

Everything that breathes –

One family.

Rejoice, Rejoice,

We speak with the same voice.

Opher – 16.10.2020

DNA the language of life. Everything that lives has the same beginning. We all are related.

From an amoeba to a whale we have existed just as long and read from the same code.

All life interconnected on this one lump of rock, diversifying, growing and living right up until our sun explodes.

Enjoy. It’s all we have.