Poetry – Give thanks it isn’t us!

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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 – No Eyes

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No Eyes

I have no eyes to stare,

Yet I am aware.

I have no need to move.

I have no need for food.

All I need comes to me,

So I eat for free.

All I need is sun and rain –

No need for a brain.

My whole body sings

As it delights in what nature brings.

Opher7.6.2019

We anthropomorphise. We measure other organisms by their similarities to us. We seem to want to produce a hierarchy with us at the top.

We think our brains are special; that the electricity of consciousness can only exist in its specialised tissues.

But all cells produce electricity.

What if the specialization of a brain is not required to create thought or consciousness?

Kew Gardens – the wondrous patterns of plants.

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Kew is a photographers dream. So much beauty to photograph.

Poetry – The Green Wonder

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The Green Wonder

There is a green wonder

That runs on light

To create splendour

In sheer delight –

An array of colour

Shape and grace

Exceeding imagination

Cramming this place.

Who could have dreamt of such magnificence?

Evolved through time to sate every sense.

Taken for granted until it is gone

At this rate, that will not take long.

The saving grace is that long after we are long gone

The green wonder will right every wrong.

Opher – 11.2.2017

The Green Wonder

Plants are the highest form of life on this planet. Their complexity outshines all else. Their photosynthesis provides the oxygen we breathe and their manufacturing of food provides the basis for nearly all life. It is thanks to the wonderful green organic machines that life has evolved in all its multitude of forms.

Plants are the fundament on which all life builds.

As we inexorably destroy nature and busily turn the planet into a plastic tourist Disneyland of concrete and garbage we will reduce the diversity to nil and pull the rug from under our own feet.

When we have finally succumbed to the inevitable virus there will still be plants to work their wonders. Over the millennia their roots will break through concrete and their biochemical processes will cleanse the planet.

Over a few hundred million years the remaining animals will evolve to exploit the food and habitats created by the green wonder. Once again there will be an array as varied and beautiful. Hopefully, once again intelligence may arise and this time really be intelligent. But even if it does it could never eclipse the most wondrous organism of all.

Poetry – Green

Posted on by Opher

Green

 

Cathedrals of light

Whose membranes

Play with photons,

Splitting water,

Releasing oxygen,

To give life.

 

Zillions of temples,

Worshipping the sun,

Whose excited electrons

Stream down gradients

Donating their energy

Freely.

 

Opher – 15.2020

Are plants cleverer that humans?

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Are plants cleverer that humans?

Chimp elitismstyle_chimpanzee

What makes an animal intelligent? – Its brain.

How does the brain work? –  It forms a complex network of neurones that fire as with a computer.

How do the nerve cells fire? – They have electrochemical charges on their membranes. They change electric potential by moving charged ions.

Do plants think? – We don’t know. We know they are conscious of their environment and respond to it.

How would a plant think? It doesn’t have a brain or nervous system does it? – All plant cells have the same electro-potential as brain cells. Maybe the whole plant operates as a brain?

Are plants conscious?

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We are very anthropomorphic and judge any and everything by its similarity to us.

Plants are very different to us.

Because of the way they feed they do not require specialised organs. They do not need to move.

But plant cells are extremely complex – much more complex than any animal cells. They are much more evolved.

Our brain, which is the seat of our consciousness, works on ionic balances creating changes in cell polarisation.

All plant cells utilise the same system.

Is it possible that the whole of a plant operates like our brains?

Do plants think?

If so this has great implications for vegetarians and salad eaters.

To be eaten alive cannot be pleasant.