Ten Years
Ten years
Flashes past
On a journey
Into a haze;
A journey without rules.
A life
Drifts along
Changing
Passing
Slowly
Inexorably
Dwindling
Until
Finally
It ends
Leaving us bemused.
Opher – 19.9.2024
I was looking back. Ten years seem to have disappeared in a flash. It’s like time has speeded up. My life is hurtling along towards an inevitable conclusion.
I’ve only just got started!
I haven’t sorted where I’m going yet!
Where has all the time gone?
The Spice of Life
The spice of life:
It’s hot.
The herbs
The vitamins
Produce a nutritious meal;
A balanced diet
Possessing the full spectrum
Of flavours,
To be consumed with delight.
The feast,
The banquet,
A smorgasbord
From which to choose
A diet of distinction!
Opher – 19.9.2024
I guess we select the various ingredients from the range available. Everything is spread out before us. The variety is spectacular. We can put together the most amazing, healthy meals, or pile our plates with rubbish. How we put the ingredients together is up to us.
The world is our banquet.
Our lives are our choices.
Footprints
Footprints in the sand;
Erased by waves;
Existing for brief moments.
A pattern, an artwork,
That came out of nowhere
And was washed away.
A sandy beach
With no sign of life.
Waves lapping.
A seagull swooping
Through the eddies of the wind.
Devoid of people.
No feet.
Footprints
Waves
No more feet.
Waves lapping
Smooth sand
Then
No feet
No seagull
No wind
No waves
No sand.
Opher – 29.4.2024
The inspiration for my poem is the impermanence of life, of existence, of the universe.
Our whole lives are a fleeting moment, like footprints in the sand erased by the rising tide.
Even the universe will fade and die.
Coming to terms with that is life.
Filling the seconds with the wonder and art – the patterns around us, the wonder of a swooping bird.
Making the most of this brief interlude – living it to the full.
Life
Analysing diet,
Walking every day,
Getting enough sleep;
Extending life for play.
Aches and pains,
Memories fade
Energies diminish:
No long-term plans are laid.
Hanging on to life,
Extending the day,
Loving this universe:
More than we can say.
So many things to do,
Places to go.
Filling all the moments
In places high and low.
Analysing diet,
Walking every day,
Getting enough sleep;
Extending life for play.
Opher – 8.2.2024
You’ve only got one life and it’s very short. The universe is packed; wonders abound. There are so many experiences to be had, so much to do, see, hear and touch. We need to enjoy every second.
As you approach the end and the dimming of the light; as the stars blink out forever and the sun never shines, as you feel the last caress, hear the last notes and spin off into oblivion, the one question hangs in the air – have you done enough? Enjoyed it enough? Made the most of your short trip?
Holiday in Reality
A holiday in reality,
Sojourn under the sun,
A treat with all five senses
Blink, and it’s gone.
Opening eyes to infinity,
Tasting something sweet.
Touching is believing,
Hands, brain and feet.
A holiday from oblivion,
Respite from the void.
Exposed to everything.
No time to get annoyed.
Under a zillion stars,
Stuck to a rock,
Basking in the sunshine:
A key without a lock!
A holiday in reality,
Sojourn under the sun,
A treat with all five senses
Blink, and it’s gone.
Opher – 8.2.2024
Life. What could be better?
Brought to you by the wonders of chemistry whose wondrous laws created biology.
Precious life on a planet hurtling through space.
Five senses coupled to a brain enable us to appreciate the awesome wonder of this spectacle.
Brought to you through billions of years of evolution.
We’re on the journey of a lifetime.
Discover, investigate, gorge yourself. Delight.
Nothing is not better.
Enjoy.
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.
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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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 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!
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.