Poetry – Caught between – a poem about living life in a sandwich.

Posted on by Opher

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Caught between

The universe is a strange place. It is not at all how it seems. There is a macrocosm of quasars, folded space and black holes and a microcosm of quantum absurdities.

The human mind reels.

The reality we appear to live in is an illusion. Even solidity is not real. There is more space, relatively, between atoms than there is space between stars.

I love these absurdities. We live in a world that seems to be real but nothing is at all as it seems. We are arrogant enough to believe we can understand.

Perhaps we can?

What is certain is that the concrete nature of the world we appear to live in is not correct.

Our lives are lived in a universe that appears to be trapped, like the meat in a sandwich, between two greater realities.

 

Caught between

Between the elements

And the emptiness

Lies a world of reality;

A delusion we inhabit

That is home for you and me.

 

Inside the event horizon

We live our merry lives

Living our existence

As husbands and wives.

 

Giving each day importance

As we do what must be done

Thinking we understand the truth

Of each and every one.

 

But fiction is our world

And reality a dream.

Between strings and quarks

Nothing is as it seems.

 

Opher 7.11.2015

Dark Matter becomes weirder than Sci-fi.

Posted on by Opher

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Dark Matter becomes weirder than Sci-fi.

It appears that only 4% of the universe is visible, the rest is made of Dark Matter. That’s right – 96% of the known universe is made of something we can’t see.

And as for Dark Energy (DE to us buffs), that accounts for 70% of all the energy in the known universe and we haven’t a clue what it is.

All the ‘ordinary’ matter in the universe is made of atoms and all atoms are made of quarks. Everything is made of the same building blocks.

But Dark Matter (DM to us authorities on the subject) is made of something else. It does not appear to be quarks. So I will deign to name them prior to their discovery. I want it noted that the subatomic particles that make up the ‘atoms’ (or Goodwins, as they are now termed) of Dark Matter are to henceforth be known as Ophers.

I predict that there will be a number of different Ophers just as there are with quarks. Rather than calling them upward, downward, strange and charm as with quarks I want them named after my favourite Rock stars. So, depending on how many we later discover, in descending order, I want them named Roys (after Roy Harper), Dylans (after Bob Dylan) Beefies (After Captain Beefheart), Jimis (After Jimi Hendrix and Woodys (after Woody Guthrie). If there are more discovered then I would like them called Elmores (after Elmore James) and Nicks (after Nick Harper). Hopefully we’ll eventually discovered loads more and we can deploy Howlins (after Howlin Wolf) and Muddy’s (after Muddy Waters) as well as Beatles and Countrys (after the Fab Four and Country Joe and the Fish).

The interesting thing about Dark Matter is that it is probably all around us but we cannot see it or feel it. It is only detectable by its gravitational effect. There is a whole world out there made of Ophers all constructed out of Roys, Dylans, Jimis, Beefies, Nicks, Elmores and Woodys. There are people just like us moving through us right now having a conversation that is a conjecture about what the other 4% of their Dark Matter might be made of.

I told you it was weirder than imagination.