The First Second

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The First Second

In the first second

                I opened my eyes

                                And the world began;

The light flooded in,

                Followed by sound,

                                Touch and bewilderment.

In the first second

                Everything began

                                All at once.

It keeps stopping

                And starting.

Every night

                It stops.

Every morning

                It starts afresh.

I live,

                Sandwiched between oblivion,

In spurts

                Of outrageous majesty.

Opher – 19.12.2023

There had to be a first second when I opened my eyes and the world began. I cannot remember but I can imagine.

I live each day in a wonderland that people are doing their best to destroy.

I am surrounded by the most incredible majesty. It is all around me. I am so used to it that I do not even recognise how amazing it is. Every second, every ray, every touch, sound and particle. Above all the other creatures.

Every night I close my eyes and it melts away.

I came from oblivion.

One day I shall close my eyes for the last time. That last second will be the reverse of birth. The light and sound will fade and I will melt away into nothing once again.

Poetry – Meaning

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MeaningForged in the centre of a star                Where atoms are stripped                                And split,The molecules of my mind were created.As it spewed its substance forth                In a supernova blast,                                Condensing,The nascent energy permeated.Into matter, carbon and DNA                In wondrous meaning                                Evolving,As if all life was fated.The unique fire was lit,                A spark of consciousness,                                Of life,A spark that cannot be equated.For without that spark                The whole infinite universe                                Is meaninglessIn darkness unalleviated.Opher – 19.12.2019

I find it hard to imagine and a joy to wonder at, that all the matter and energy in the universe blasted into existence in the instant of the Big Bang. That naked, basic matter, condensed in stars, nuclear dynamos of heat and pressure, in which the more complex elements were created.So all the atoms of my planet and my body emanated from the inferno of a star.Those suns spawned matter and give light and warmth to nourish life. They are truly the gods of the heavens. No wonder primitive people worshiped them.But it is us that give this incredible spectacle meaning.

Out of One Comes Many

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Out of One Comes Many

Starting with one

                Giving rise to many.

Coming from a place

                Where there wasn’t any.

Impossible to understand

                How it came to be.

Everything about it

                An impossibility.

From the inanimate

                To consciousness.

To see, hear and touch

                The more with less.

We’ve created religions

                To try to understand.

Now science steps in

                To lend a hand.

But to understand

                Is beyond humanity.

No phony explanations.

                Appreciate the majesty!

Opher – 11.4.2021

We live in an amazing infinite universe.

We do not know how it came into being.

We have consciousness. We see, hear, think, touch, smell and taste.

We do not know how.

We live and we die.

We find death frightening so we invented an afterlife.

We found the mysteries of the beginning of the universe, life and consciousness too bewildering. So we invented gods, heavens and paradise.

For some of us these inventions explain everything.

They explain nothing.

They are inventions.

We live in an amazing infinite universe.

We have consciousness.

It is a wonder.

That is enough.

Out of the Unknown

Posted on by Opher

Out of the Unknown

Out of lightning into reality.

Out of chemistry into biology.

Out of nothing into life.

From the darkness into light.

From the mindless into thought.

From lifeless to where it’s rife.

Opher 11.4.2021

There are many great mysteries. One of the biggest is the question of how life arose.

How did a bunch of chemicals become infused with life?

What strange reaction occurred to imbue inorganic molecules with life?

In a universe full of wonder there was nothing to see, hear, touch, taste or smell it. All that incredible majesty was unnoticed.

Then came life and the light, sound, touch, smell and taste came alive. The unverse had a witness.

Over billions of years this life was honed through mutation and evolution into the myriad forms we see around us. Each one a wonder.

This is incredible.

I live.

I walk. I eat. I breathe. I see. I think.

I am conscious.

Nobody knows how.

I find that too amazing for words.

Some invent god to explain it.

Why replace one incredible wonder with another?

Just marvel at it.

That is enough.

Poetry – Open Your Eyes

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Open Your Eyes

We open our eyes into a wondrous place;

Close them and it is gone.

What gives it meaning?

‘Curing the sick,’

Says the physician,

Operating on the tiny child.

‘Giving life to the dying,

Hope to the parents,

Relief to those in pain.

That provides the meaning.’

Understanding the universe,’

Says the scientist,

Solving the problems of the world.

‘Finding what makes the atoms tick,

Where we came from

And the secrets in the depths of space.

That provides the meaning.’

‘Making something beautiful,’

Says the artist,

Creating something unique.

‘Crafting a scene so wondrous

That it moves the soul

And opens the heart to love.

That provides the meaning.’

‘Caring for those in need,’

Says the nurse,

Smoothing the hair from the troubled brow.

‘Providing comfort

From the stress and strain,

From pain and fear.

That provides the meaning.’

‘Worshipping God,’

Says the Bishop

On her knees in prayer.

‘Giving thanks for our lives,

The wonders of the universe

And hope for all eternity.

That is what gives life meaning.’

‘Living in the wonder of the moment,’

Says the atheist.

‘Taking pleasure in the awe

Of each and every moment

And wanting nothing more.

That is what gives life meaning.

We open our eyes into a wondrous place;

Close them and it is gone.

What gives it meaning?

Opher 25.7.2018

Sometimes it is important to reflect that life is short and means different things to different people.

Perhaps there is no meaning other than what we give it?

All I know is that we are born; open our eyes into a place of wonder; live our lives, and then close our eyes and it is gone.

What takes place in between is a product of our desires, our cultural perspective, our indoctrination, our free will and our experiences. Perhaps nothing more.

We live in a moment. We can choose what we make of that.

Poetry – Reality

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Reality

Reality in a cloud of electricity,

In infinity

Within;

Created out of chemistry.

The universe

Manufactured

In the head,

Coalesced

From limited senses:-

Not the whole spread.

What we see

Is partial.

It is not the universe.

Opher – 4.5.2020

I think it’s philosophy.

We think we live in reality. But do we? All our perception is just electrical activity in our brains.

We think what we are seeing and feeling is real. It isn’t.

It is nothing more than some phenomenon of consciousness – a network of chemistry and polarised charge – nothing more.

We do not even know if anything really exists outside of our head.

Poetry – Incomprehensible – How Amazing!

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Incomprehensible – How Amazing!

Incomprehensible unlikelihood,

Unbelievable immensity,

Improbable developments,

In the midst of nothing,

Out of nowhere,

Going all ways

At once.

How Amazing!

Contemplating, calibrating,

Understanding, thinking,

Investigating;

With a pink jelly

Infused with electricity

Creating reality

Out of nothing;

Beyond understanding.

How Amazing!

Opher – 3.5.2020

I keep going back to the big questions. Where do we come from? How big is infinity? How is something created out of nothing? How do our brains enable us to think? What is reality?

Some contemplate these things and turn to religion for answers.

I do not.

I think religion has no answers.

Perhaps the answers are too weird?

Science only tells a partial picture.

All I can say when I look out at the cosmos, at the creation of life, the evolution of life or our own minds, is WOW!! How Amazing!

That might be enough.

Poetry – Meaning

Posted on by Opher

Meaning

Forged in the centre of a star

                Where atoms are stripped

                                And split,

The molecules of my mind were created.

As it spewed its substance forth

                In a supernova blast,

                                Condensing,

The nascent energy permeated.

Into matter, carbon and DNA

                In wondrous meaning

                                Evolving,

As if all life was fated.

The unique fire was lit,

                A spark of consciousness,

                                Of life,

A spark that cannot be equated.

For without that spark

                The whole infinite universe

                                Is meaningless

In darkness unalleviated.

Opher – 19.12.2019

I find it hard to imagine and a joy to wonder at, that all the matter and energy in the universe blasted into existence in the instant of the Big Bang. That naked, basic matter, condensed in stars, nuclear dynamos of heat and pressure, in which the more complex elements were created.

So all the atoms of my planet and my body emanated from the inferno of a star.

Those suns spawned matter and give light and warmth to nourish life. They are truly the gods of the heavens. No wonder primitive people worshiped them.

But it is us that give this incredible spectacle meaning.

Poetry – Words are not enough

Posted on by Opher

Words are not enough

Words are not enough.

They never can be.

Words paint pictures

But do they connect?

Are the words the same

For you and me?

Can words do justice

To a majestic vision?

A leaf in words

Is not a leaf.

A sunset

Cannot be described.

I use my words to paint pictures

In your mind.

But they are pale imitations

Of reality.

We always fall short.

Even our reality

Is a pale imitation

Of what really is.

Our limitations

Make us fail.

Our senses are too few;

Our mind too little

Opher – 18.11.2019

I am always struggling with realisation that what we see is not real. The world is filtered through a limited number of senses. There is so much we do not see. Our minds interpret the electric patterns and turn them into pictures. But our minds are tiny; our perceptions limited. The world we see is not the world that is. It is so much less.

When we attempt to use words to describe the world we must always fall short – for even the greatest poet cannot use such limited symbols that connect in ambiguous ways, to describe a partially understood phenomenon. We must always fall short.

Poetry – Cosmic Dance

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Cosmic Dance

Life is a dance,

Without rehearsal,

                                Moves of beauty

Elegance and eloquence

Play out

                On a green jewel

Pirouetting

Through a void.

                Each step

                                A glide

                                                Into the unknown

                                Each gesture

                                                                A motif of defiance

                Expressed

                                In joy.

Opher – 8.11.2019

My wife is a dancer. She sees the world through movement.

I too see it that way. It is beautiful.

The ripples of corn, the waves in the sea, the waving of branches, the shimmering of leaves.

A murmur of starlings, a shoal of fish, the breaching of a whale, the sprint of a leopard.

The waving of hands, the creases of a smile, the grasp of a handshake.

The orbit of planets, the radiance of a sun. The throbbing of atoms, swirling of electrons and flash of light.

All life is a dance.