One of the greatest songs ever written. Life, love, the futility of society, religion, politics and purpose against the backdrop of nature and eternity.
Always blows my mind.
Poetry – Take me back to – a poem that reworks the theme of disillusionment
Take me back to
As I walked around the deck of the Marco Polo and thought about the immense changes that have taken place in the last two hundred years I kept reworking this poem.
I’ve travelled through oceans that once teemed with life and are now empty.
I visited islands where British ships replenished their larders by bludgeoning to death all the indigenous creatures.
Two hundred years ago life teemed. Now it is hanging on by its talons.
I am aging in fits and starts on a slow decline towards an inevitable death. The planet is on a similar trajectory.
In the next two hundred years we will have paved it all, caged what’s left and be living in an artificial, plastic paradise, as free as any good consumer can be.
Take me back to where I can breathe and wonder. I want out of this nightmare.
Take me back to
Take me back to the African plains;
Away from the bombs of the insane;
Away from the craziness of god’s refrain;
Away from the missiles and blood stains;
Away from every human brain;
All the bones of the animals we have slain;
The trees that rot where they’re lain.
I’d send the whole lot down the drain
And start over again.
So I could wonder at the universe
In one sand grain
And find the will
To refrain
From slaughter.
Opher 22.2.2016
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Poetry – Eyes Open – A poem to the splendour around us.
Awe and Wonder
I wanted to write a poem to encapsulate the incredible beauty of the universe and life on this vibrant jewel of a planet.
Evolution has provided us with sense in order to enable us to survive. It has provided us with a brain to process the data. Our senses see all that is around us in order to protect us from predators and enable us to find food and shelter.
An offshoot of this is that we have developed consciousness that allows us to comprehend, create and wonder.
The world around us is full of immense beauty. Life on this planet has evolved into immaculate forms. The natural features of this planet are marvellous to behold.
We should open our senses to the full and bask in it and thank chance for dealing us this hand.
We are possibly the only intelligent life in the whole universe who are able to witness the extent of this wonder. I hope that we are able to not only appreciate but preserve the splendour we are surrounded with; much of it is delicate.
Eyes Open
Surrounded:
Petal and scale
Iridescent –
Galactic
Majesty
Replete.
Feather
Wing and crystal,
Aromatic scent
Creating
Awe and wonder
We cannot repeat.
In the midst
Of splendour
We exist
With sense
To feel
It all;
With open eyes
And ears
To insist
That life is here
To feel
That pull.
There is wonder in our being;
Greatness in our seeing,
And love enough
To hold it all in
Thrall.
Opher 27.7.2015
A Trillion Reactions
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.
One Shot
One Shot
One shot!
That’s all we’ve got!
This is it!
We can take it!
Or blow it!
One shot
To get it right.
This is it!
We live it to the full
Or throw it!
One shot!
To win or lose!
This is it!
We can pretend it’s not
Or know it!
One SHOT!
Under blue skies
This is it!
We can hide from it
Or show it!
Opher – 5.3.2023
Life. We only get one chance. There are no rehearsals. Every second is a second away from it ending.
We can seize it and make it beautiful or we can wreck it and make it ugly.
One shot.
I try to fill each second.
Women, Life, Freedom. (For Mahsa Amini & the women of Iran)
Women, Life, Freedom. (For Mahsa Amini & the women of Iran)
Women Life Freedom!!
We cut our hair
Throw off our chains.
They beat us.
They kill us
But the will remains!
Incredible bravery
In the face of death!!
We oppose injustice
With every breath!!
A regime of terror
In the name of God.
Enforced with violence –
Gun, gas and rod.
We stand together
For a better life!
The cry for Regime change
Is becoming rife!
Women Life Freedom!!
Equality for all!!
Fighting for our lives
With our backs against the wall!!
Opher 5.10.2022
The brave women of Iran are standing up against the authoritarian, misogynistic, regime based on terror and repression.
The zealots of extremism are not content to have their own views of religion; they have to impose it on others!!
This misogynistic philosophy comes screaming out of the bowels of the Dark Ages, from tribal nomadic Arabs intent on suppressing women.
These tyrants wish to shackle half the world’s population in sackcloth and masks.
It’s time everybody rose up and demands equality!!
Down with tyrants!!
Down with evil purveyors of terror and oppression!!
The nutters of God need putting back in their box!!
Solidarity with the fearless women of Iran!!
Mahsa Amini lives!!
Endless Ocean
Endless Ocean
An endless ocean,
Spanning eternity,
Still and dreamy,
Crystalline in the darkness,
Yet rushing,
Exploding
In slow motion
Ever outward
At unimaginable speeds.
Towards the inevitable,
Creating
Unending variety
Of transmuting
Wonders;
Encapsulating
All the dreams and wishes;
The hopes and fears,
That have ever been
Or ever will be.
For a fleeting moment
We are swept
Along
In its undulating tides
Contributing
All we are.
Opher – 10.12.2022
We are voyagers on a ship that is a lump of rock as it dreamily speeds through an endless journey across a fathomless void.
This sea has no shores.
This ship has no destination.
This ocean has no waters.
The reality is totally at odds to the impression.
What appears serene is really an unimaginable fury.
What appears to move so slowly we cannot see it change, is speeding at a rate we cannot even imagine.
It presents us with a never-ending stream of wonders.
Sit back and enjoy the trip.
The Sun Just is.
Everything is everything cos everything just is.
Life Goes By
Life Goes By
Life goes by
With us
Or without us
Despite us
All around us
But for how long?
Just once
On a bombarded rock
Dancing in the rain
Wearing just one sock
A profound dunce capered.
Opher – 25.6.2022
It always seems amazing to me that on this tiny barren rock, in the middle of a vast ocean of stars, life began.
So much we don’t understand.
So much awe and wonder.
So many coincidences.
Instead of appreciating the stupendous circumstances that surround us we have to make up rigid fables and tie ourselves down.
Instead of respecting the wonders we are surrounded with we have to carelessly ignore them, destroy them and try to rule over them.
I can’t help thinking that we’re destined for a big fall.
Give It all You’ve Got.
Give It all You’ve Got.
All the laughs,
All the love,
The agony
And loss.
Will be forgotten,
Count for nothing,
With nobody
Counting the cost.
In the darkness of forever
It won’t matter
That we went for it
Hell for leather.
All we have is
A brief moment in time
In which
We love and shine.
Though it won’t matter a jot.
We’ll still give it all we’ve got!
Opher – 25.6.2022
I often feel that life is a gesture, nothing more.
It is testimony to man’s essential nature that, despite knowing that it is all meaningless and destined to end, we still strive to create.
Pointlessness does not matter.
In the moment we attempt to understand, to express and to raise our puny flags as if staking out eternity.
In this moment there is no death, no aging; no such thing as futility. In this moment all things are possible.
In this moment we can experience everything, fill ourselves with bliss, understanding and love; we can live. Only in this moment.
That is what makes life worthwhile.