Life
On the earth
The microbes stir
To cover the surface with scum.
They conspire
To work together
To create us and everyone.
On the moon
It’s sterile
Not a creature in sight
No consciousness
No eyes to see
No dreams to dream at night.
Opher – 13.1.2025
Guess we need a little atmosphere, warmth and water.
A Magical Land
I opened my eyes to a magical land,
Took a moment for my mind to expand,
Smiled at the things close at hand,
Rummaged in the attic to taste what’s planned;
Another day for a desperate stand.
She stirred beside me without a care,
Opened her eyes on everywhere,
Reached out to cuddle me close
With the healing touch that means the most.
Then up to it with the tea and toast.
The sun smiled,
Green leaves throbbed,
Butterflies capered,
Bees bobbed,
Crows cawed
Swifts screamed
But nothing much
Was as it seemed.
Outside the door the battle loomed.
Casualties sagged with ideals entombed.
I took my place in the front line,
Hanging on to what was mine:
A ragged warrior lost in time.
Hard to remember what and why
As years pass and friends fly by;
Dreams perish and babies cry.
Ensnared by the eternal slice of the pie.
But the dream’s alive
Amid greed and hate.
Embers flare
At the edge of the gate.
The spirit still roars from under the weight
She touches my hand
All twinkling eyes
Full of love
And morning skies.
The strength flows,
Tenacity grows.
Where we’re going
No-one knows!
We ran through the forests
Danced on the plains,
Conquered the seas
Crossed the mountain range.
Roamed the deserts,
Through the strength of our brains.
We filled the air
With the joy of our song,
Praising the sun,
The land and the sky.
Filling our minds with the where, what and why?
In all of this we belong
Yet that is where it all went wrong.
Creating leaders,
Inventing gods
Possessions and armies
Rockers and Mods.
In an endless sequence of agony and gore
Tragic stupidity; endless war;
We live in the days of mindless hordes,
Fake news, propaganda and threat of the spores.
We’ve lost our connection to the bees and the trees,
Brought Mother Nature down to her knees.
In the senseless game that we play
Where a few get everything
And the mindless just pray.
Our inventions betray us
Rob us of life.
Cut from reality
With the stroke of a knife.
The future a blizzard,
The past a blood bath.
Looking for purpose
You must be having a laugh!!
Opher – 2.8.2024
It’s a little epic; stretching from the personal to the universal and crossing time. More than a passing nod to the great Roy Harper – Me And My Woman, The Lord’s Prayer, The Game – though I do not claim to warrant any comparison.
The stupidity and gullibility of mankind never ceases to amaze me.
Our propensity for violence, endless wars; our blind ignorance.
An amazing, magical land; a mysterious journey, marred by tribalism, greed and hate. We deploy our inventions of leaders, gods, politics and lust against ourselves.
Born in a magical land we ignore the abundant treasure for a pocket full of fool’s gold.
Tiny Blue Jewel
A tiny blue jewel
Floating in the dark.
An atom in the midst
Of a sea.
Home for us all,
Everything that lives,
A wonder
Lost in eternity.
Everything related
In a wondrous web
A marvel
Of glorious harmony.
Opher – 9.5.2021
I never get over the wonder of the universe, its immensity, and our life on this tiny planet, an insignificant speck, an atom in an ocean.
Yet on this speck is all the life that has ever been – supporting itself and each other in a complex web. We are part of this incredible unlikelihood. Amazing.
Gaia Breathes
A gentle sigh through the long grass,
Sending ripples across the meadows
Like waves across a pond,
Carrying the whispers of eras.
A roaring in the trees
Shaking branches and bending mighty trunks
Like the crash of great rollers on a shingle beach;
The roar of dragons.
Gaia breathes.
Driven by sun,
Ruffling the hair,
Giving relief,
Driving the clouds
To replenish the land,
Bringing back life,
Gaia breathes.
Opher – 20.4.2020
As I went on my daily walk a gentle warm breeze was blowing in my face. I watched the clouds scurry across the sky and hoped I wouldn’t get rained on.
I watched the breeze move across the fields rippling the grass. I heard the wind rattling the leaves in the trees.
It felt like the breath of a living thing.
Life
Basking in the sun in the goldilocks zone
Dancing between the stars all on our own.
Uniquely living on a rock that has given us life –
A green haven on which life is rife.
But do we value what we have in this place of wonder?
Or do we continue to destroy, to rape and plunder?
We’re spinning around on a great green ball
That seems to have it all
While for many
It’s too dismal.
Basking in the sun in the goldilocks zone
Dancing between the stars all on our own.
Opher – 10.3.2020
This wondrous planet is quite unique. Out of the zillions of planets in the universe this one is special. It is in precisely the right place with the right conditions.
It has warmth, light and water.
They have combined in this unique manner to create life in abundance.
It might be the only planet in the entire universe to do so.
How special is that?
Sacred Ground
Once it’s gone it can’t come back.
Sacred ground,
Desecrated,
Ripped and torn.
Lies abound!
Bit by bit,
Under concrete
Dead and gone.
Chopped and shot,
Poisoned and mauled,
Short and long,
Raised to the ground.
Life once plentiful
Now is scarce,
Decimated,
Most profound,
Vestiges
Clinging onto
Desecrated,
Sacred ground.
Opher 4.4.2019
When I was young the world was full of life, jungles were unexplored, Africa teemed with creatures. My back yard was full of butterflies and bees, the ditches had sticklebacks, newts and frogs, hedgehogs came to call.
Nature is sacred ground. It is profound. It is being decimated.
The Blue Dot
Every dream that ever was
Every single sigh
Every life that’s ever lived
Every what and why
Every kiss and cuddle
Every kick and cry
Every act that’s ever been
Through the by and by
Everything that’s ever lived
From the beginning to now
Every life that might have been
Or could ever take a bow.
Every bird and every bee
Every virus and tree
Every single dinosaur
Or performing flea.
Nowhere else in the universe
Does such a wonder exist.
A tiny blue dot in space
That would never even be missed
Opher 11.6.2021
That little blue dot photograph puts everything in perspective. We are an insignificant speck. That is all. We are not significant.
Yet this speck contains all life.
Every form of life that has ever lived. Every human being. Every act of life. It has only happened here.
One day, when the sun evolves into a red giant and engulfs the Earth, it will all be gone.
One Mother Many Sons
Sometimes I despair of what we are doing. The overpopulation continues – producing huge numbers sweeping all before it in a mad rush for space, food, water and shelter.
Mass migration, deforestation, desertification, desecration, fanaticism, desperation, slaughter of life, butchery and death. The mantra is for more growth, more expansion. The rich get richer. The poor starve in the midst of plenty. The numbers increase by the minute. A mad hurtling forward. Everyone looking after their own
Mad belief that it will all work out.
What can we do?
Get on with our lives.
While those at the top scheme and cream from their yachts and penthouse suites. And those at the bottom dream of pent-house suites and yachts.
One Mother Many Sons
One mother in the bush
Under the sun
Holding her child
In the wild,
Her only one.
Passing down her line
To roam and redefine
The changes
Strong and true
As her family grew.
Through many threats
And chance
They came through.
A mere two hundred thousand
Years flew
As the eyes peered
And minds grew
Flint to steel
And spaceship crew
Conquering all before
In rabid mode
Into space
To explode
With a mantra of ‘mine’
And bombs to
Unload.
Now seven billion on the shore
Chopping, slaying
For ever more
With nothing left
To remain
Of the wonders around
That we disdain.
Heading for ten billion
Without a care
As we settle every score
With seething brain
And madness as our pillion.
Twenty billion on a sterile ball
Of plastic joy
And concrete and steel alloy
Still heading on
Is the best we can do.
Thinking a hundred thousand
Years more
Is our due.
Yet the next fifty
May well see us through.
Adieu, Adieu…… Adieu
They’ll be nothing left
To miss you.
Opher 10.9.2015