I am here.
I am there.
I can be everywhere.
From the
Beginning
To the very end,
I spin
And zing,
Never stopping,
Always on the go,
In the know,
Part of everything.
I screech in stars,
In Einstein’s thoughts,
In cold cold space
And the entire human race.
I give my dreams
To everything.
I am something.
I am nothing.
With me
The universe will sing.
I am conscious.
I am aware.
I can be found in your nowhere stare.
I came from nothing,
Will live for ever.
In the quantum madness.
I switch on
And off,
From nothing to something,
And back again.
Underlying gladness
In molecular dreams.
For nothing is ever what it seems.
I am here.
I am there.
I can be everywhere.
From the
Beginning
To the very end
I spin
And zing
Never stopping;
Always on the go,
In the know,
Part of everything.
Opher 2.6.2025
I am forever intrigued by science – particularly quantum theory – stranger than Sci-fi.
I was reading of the possibility of all matter possessing consciousness. How weird is that? Planets think?
What dreams can an atom dream?
Atoms are forever.
They flicked into existence at the beginning. They will endure to the end. They can be in two places at once. Can they flick on and off? Is the universe flicking on and off? It’s crazier than religion.
We are atoms.
Are they responsible for our thoughts?
They pass through us and on forever.
I wanted to track the journey of an atom. It was beyond me.
We’re all standing on a narrow ledge.
Any moment we could fall.
On the edge of an abyss
Could be at the end of it all.
On the brink of nuclear holocaust.
We live every single day
As if it was our very last
As we work, rest and play.
Nothing is at all secure
Though we pretend it is.
Swerving death every day
In this game of hit and miss.
We expect every day to repeat
As if there is no change.
But increment by increment
We mutate into the strange.
Opher – 2.10.2022
Life is short and fragile. The time when we are young is fleeting. At every turn danger lurks. It’s a wonder anybody lives to old age.
One moment of inattention. One instant of bad luck. One push of a button. One pull of a trigger.
DISTRACTION
A fuck A film
A smoke a joke
A smash some hash
A pill a thrill
Is all it takes to distract you
To stop you from having to think
And life goes by
Outside your window
As you pour another drink
A grab A deal
A leer A feel
A Crash A Bash
A Breath A Death
Is all it takes to fill your mind
Like a tennis ball in a vacuum flask
Bouncing in your head
Disturbing nothing
So you don’t have to ask.
15.7.96 Opher
It would appear to me that there are pressing issues that we should all become involved with.
A small number of people are setting a tone, guiding us down a path of growth and profit. This is devastating the planet.
Politics is not pointless. We are not impotent. We can make a difference.
This poem was written in response to the shallowness I saw around me – the distraction that prevented people from engaging with anything that had depth and meaning.
TV and fun can be worthwhile and expanding; they can also create airheads.
Bullshit
They told me I’d go to heaven
When I strapped on that bomb
That paradise would be mine
And everything would be fine
In the bus on the way to market
Fidgeting with my change
Cherishing each second and trying to mark it
As the end comes into range
They said there was no other way
It was hidden in the genes
To draw attention to the day
The end justifies the means
But I’ve thought about it
And I’ve weighed up the blend
There is only ever just the means
And there never is an end.
Opher 11.3.96
The whole spectre of suicide bombings, religious fanaticism and violence has taken on a greater and greater significance.
The extremists seem to be pushing for an all-out war with the West. It is a clash of ideologies. They want to impose their religious beliefs on the world. They see it as a battle between Islam and Christianity.
I do not see it that way at all. For centuries Muslims and Christians and Jews have lived together in harmony. Every now and then a fanatical element, or politically inspired prejudice, or seeker of power, uses the religious card to further their ends.
We have to put the present situation in context with the past.
There is a battle going on. It is between the people who wish to live in a world of diversity and harmony, where all people’s views are respected and we learn to accept our differences, or a world of fundamental intolerance.
I know which I would fight for.
This poem was written from the perspective of a bomber who woke up to the fact that he was being used and was merely a pawn in a power struggle.
Change
Got any change Mister?
Change is all there is
In this fragile life
Nothing real can stay
Our atoms stick
Then melt and part
And travel on their way
Opher 27.5.99
There was this kid with his obligatory dog and sleeping bag at the side of the pavement asking for change. That is what set my mind going.
All this universe knows is change. The laws of thermo-dynamics are going flat out.
We’ll all be dust!
Sometimes I think the rate of change in our society is madness. My Grandmothers grew up in a world that had dirt roads, gas lights, horse and carts and no cars. They lived to see men on the moon and space-stations.
The world we live in is changing so much as the world population spirals to seven billion on its way to ten, the forests disappear and wilderness is destroyed. Progress can be extremely negative.
This is my latest book of poems.
But this is my latest poem.
I am Quantum
The reality we hold within our heads is created by the neuronal net we each possess. Our consciousness is the result of billions of electrical impulses.
It is not real.
Our senses fire and relay their messages to the brain. The brain interprets these and creates sight, touch, warmth, sound, smell and the elements it uses to create our reality.
It we were dissociated from our nerves and different messages were conveyed it would create a different reality.
The world we see is not real; it is created by our brain.
My world and yours are completely different. We cannot imagine the universe our pets inhabit.
At the same time my mind fantasises and dreams, creates poems, visions and ideas.
They are not real.
They are the product of my neuronal net.
In Quantum physics an electron can exist in two places simultaneously. The whole universe is a product of unreality.
I think I have a quantum mind.
I am Quantum
I lead a quantum life
Flitting about
Here and there
In the world
And in my head
At the same time.
Two worlds
Simultaneous
And who can tell
Which is more real?
My ideas exist
In two places
As they shunt
Their strange paths
Across my synapses
To my dreams.
My senses fire –
Send messages
Along neurones
To make picture,
Solid and concrete,
In my head.
All the world,
Inside and out,
Is the same –
An electric fog,
A quantum leap,
Into the creation
Of a universe
Or two.
Opher 6.12.2015
40.
I am the distance between any two points
I am the greatest size you can think
I am the point that has no size
I am the paradox that dissolves beyond logic
In me is contained all things
I am the Truth that defies all laws
I am the glimpse that can never be seen
I am the centre of all things
I am the fear from which men turn
Without me there is no meaning.
