Monday, November 07, 2005

ODE TO THE COSMOS

MATTER TIME LIGHT AND ENERGY

It was a deep and ebony darkness.
it was hollow but complete.
black ethers filled all void.
endless unavoidable eternity of nothingness,
spaceless emptiness of all space.

It was a deep ebony darkness,
rich without song,
composed without definition.
it was unopposed by matter,
by even a tell-tale dream of atoms.
devoid of dreams,
devoid of the undulations of time.

Somehow, by a vague coalescence
of vaporous influences,
nothingness was eclipsed by the
sudden birth of matter.

Atomic nuclei aggregating and compressing
rushing downward ever deeper
into the cavernous infinitesimal void.
particle upon particle into an abundance of mass
wrenching from the emptiness the concept of space

Heat accompanied burgeoning matter, until
void succumbed to the instantaneous
flash of purest light, until
light broke the spell of darkness until
ascending photons breached the wall of eternal night.

From the white heat
energy sprouted outward and upward
advancing the edges of nascent space
injecting chaos into the epicenter.
atoms procreated atoms
nuclei danced in the fiery incandescence.


Time stretched forward from this beginning
dispelling the peace of the changeless void,
etching the heavens out of the blackness,
dispersing great clouds of gases into the firmaments.

Throughout the vastness
atoms within the matrix of turbulent matter
fell into each other swirling into nascent spheres.
spheres began to inherit gravity.
gravity sent them spinning, until
stars began their nuclear dances, and
became the guardians of heat and light.

Star fell upon star in their fiery contagion
light-filled galaxies shimmered in the growing universe.

From the coalescing matter of new born stars
molten satellites emerged, and
through the eons of impending time
within the interwoven fabric of space
gaseous spheres from stellar matter born
cooled to the hardness of rock and ice, and
the histories of many world were inexorably begun.


THE DANCE OF PLANETS

Millions of worlds grew older as they
coursed around their parent stars.
On some water and ice became abundant,
and carbon built itself into long growing chains.
Complexity grew and learned to mimic itself,
until the interplay of abundance, variety and chance
left those worlds with a cellular song.

Cells grew upon cells.
life built upon life.
rock and air and wind and fire
conspired with nascent being
to produce all variety of intelligence.

Intelligent beings exerted their powers.
in this way many worlds were altered
until the very scheme of existence wavered.
worlds died, others prospered,
some outlived their enfebled stars.

Earthmen argue concerning the nature of events.
nonetheless the universe grows old.
energy seeps from its great reservoirs.
the candle to be either lit again or exhaust itself
into a deep and ebony darkness.

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