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Saturday, January 19, 2013

The Nature of Things ( a guest blog by Kolea)


As I gaze upon your lovely youthful features my darling

Your locks billowing about your shoulders with the morning breeze

It’s hard to remember the reality of such a special thing
I’d like to capture this moment and store it forever in some deep freeze.

But if I try to hold on to this blinding unreality I see
Repeatedly tormented by life’s storms will I forever be
Not using the sensibilities that fate has thrust upon me
Among the uncounted billions chained for life, a chance to be free.

Beneath the skin with the sheen of milky white sheet of silk
Lies muscle, bone, glands and blood coursing through uncounted veins
Cells being lost and created in myriad droves of every conceivable ilk
Not a single instant are you the same from that which it sustains.

In time the ravages of nature’s changes will certainly take its toll
When free radicals erase those cells causing young to become old
Limp and ragged we drag ourselves toward the grave eventually
Giving up all we own and releasing our hold very slowly, ever reluctantly.

There’s no fun in doing this we object, why wasn’t there a warning
White hairs did sneak in one by one, I didn’t see the sagging coming
The aches and pains were dealt with nicely with exercise and frequent hugs
Why, it’s as if they stopping the aging in its tracks, the wonders of modern drugs.

But time never quits, this cruel most relentless foe of all
Giving no quarter to king or pauper, slaying the mightiest and the small
Entire civilizations are its grist, they’re ground to dust eventually
So what’s one puny body like you, just because you protest so vehemently.

You prance your prance and dance your dance in eyes wide open slumber
Together with those others locked in step, growing without number
Those uncountable, innumerable, forgotten universes that existed in time without span
If you like for as long as that you can do this again and again.

Those cells of which we’re made we know are mostly vacant space
Those molecules and smaller atoms themselves are not the end of the race
Smaller and smaller they find, is each constituent part
Neutrinos and quarks reduced to vibrating strings, not even solid at heart.

Mere waves they say eventually, can all things visible be redefined
Solid matter is an antiquated idea, as knowledge becomes ever more refined
Mathematical equations may even define, who knows, everything that ever existed
Someday may be used to create anything, may not be overstated.

One day you may be captured, in a Hamiltonian or Schroedinger-like equation
They may someday reproduce you or me, maybe even our personality summation
Can anything possibly reproduce our wit and charm, no matter what the course
What a horrible thing to contemplate, coupling your keen intellect with the body of a
horse. Or possibly vice versa.

They say the Divine’s a mathematician, we can easily see why that’s so
There’s no knot beyond His ken and no solution beyond His know
There’s some things we ought to leave, in His domain to properly solve
Some things are just too complex for mere mortals, these things we can’t resolve.

There’s no limit to the how of things it seems, that humans can eventually solve
The mind of man has yet to show, the limit of its reaching
It’s possible that man can stretch it out, we’ve just started to evolve
But can we know Reality, the goal of all great teaching.

All our lives are dissipated in vain on frivolous pursuits to spend
Not aware not even in dreams of this gift from no precept
Jerked by passions left and right, attracted and distracted without end
Till Death appears without forewarning, his invitation a “must accept”.

How shall we greet, what manner meet, this Yama of the night
Patience is his long suit, he’s seen it all, all that put up the valiant fight
“It’s futile” he yawns, “don’t even try”, neither self nor others abuse
“No matter what you say or do, you know of course you’ll lose”, ho hum.

The Upanishads say, there’s only one that slipped his noose, this Nachiketa fellow
More clever than all that came before, he somehow figured it out
Of all the million billions that ever spun the wheel
He’s one of few to ever prove he wasn’t merely a lout.

Face to face with the King of Death, he eyed that mighty girth
This clever little fellow showed us all what we should aim for most dear
Don’t ask of Yama for wealth or pleasure, nor anything of common worth
Don’t waste your time or thought in anxious ways, always in fret or fear.

One thing only above the rest, will bestow some peace of mind
No matter who you’ll leave all behind, whether you’re strong or weak
Try starting with some effort to tread the path that Solomon did find
And keep in mind forever more, That alone is worth the seek.

Why seek the jewel you may rightly ask, seemingly with no form or substance
Why strive to grasp the ephemeral thought, which no eye can possibly see
The answer can only follow the question, and if the question be
He will guard and guide the honest pilgrim, who strives to really be free.

Photo by Frozenstardust
- Kolea


3 comments:

  1. I like it too Pete. Obviously a lot of critical thinking went into it. I appreciate your comment. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. i like "...and dance your dance in eyes wide open slumber".
    it says he in parts but i think the actor may be female or a male & female couple (husband+wife).
    perhaps that fits. interesting.
    ~bob zito

    ReplyDelete