Tiny Blue Jewel

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.

Poetry – Gaia Breathes

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.

Poetry – Life

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?

Poetry – Sacred Ground

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.

Poetry – The Blue Dot

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.

Poetry – One Mother Many Sons

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