My Poem ‘Nexus’

Every second we have to be connected to our life-line;
every minute we are awake we are thinking about the people
who fill our lives, and whose place in our heart
will always be hard to beat;
every hour we want what makes us happy all the time;
every day we stay in the know and on the move
no matter what we are doing-
whether we are lying in bed, or sitting down at work,
or making our way through the world with out own two feet.

Our online identities tie us all in to the cloud
of instant connectivity with everyone else
who has a mobile device- which in this day and age
is pretty-much everyone;
our email addresses are our key to virtual doors,
our technology obsession is an evolutionary step forward,
but also a calling-card of something similar
in our collective history that has happened before.

Instant access,
instant communication,
instant happiness,
instant messages of the population of our connected,
biological, and technological,
electronic, and frenetic, world,
light our lives, brighten our faces,
make us feel reassured.
An instant stage gives us all an audience,
to whom we can say what is on our minds,
show what is right in front of us,
and we can literally write our own instantly,
living, and constantly-changing autobiography-
like a writer writes their words so easily on a page.

Our technology has become our best friend.
Our mobile phones, our laptops, our tablets,
our music players, our media viewers,
are our mobile lives, our mobile homes,
our morning, midday, and twilight zones.
The first thing we reach for every morning
has changed over time and will change again,
but our accessories of connectivity and belonging
will always be there now and forever
in the form of our multi-faceted, multi-personalized,
multi-coloured, extensions of ourselves-
which has become for us all our nexus.

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My Poem ‘The Astronomer’

The sun is going down in the west,
and yet new light dawns in the wake of the setting of the sun-
light that has been veiled to the naked eye by the blue-sky
appears on the horizon,
as astronomers decipher the message of the constant sky at night,
that will one day launch humanity on its never-ending quest.

Looking up at the stars, from the ground, with a telescope,
on Earth, or in orbit, looking out of a window,
you quickly become aware that what you are seeing
is not everything that there is-
what you are seeing is the last image of a changing universe,
and the stars that you see above are echoes in its after-glow.

When we look up at the stars,
we are witnessing the history and the evolution of all life, everywhere;
when I look up at the beautiful dark night sky,
I feel invigorated by what I cannot see-
just the thought of what could be out there, what we know is out there,
magnifies my vision through the lens of my imagination,
and compels me more with every stare.

We, humanity, are an ensemble of watchers, listeners,
readers, and astronomers,
who are all searching for something,
so that we may make sense of the perfection disguised as chaos
that is our universe-
for most, the most amazing discovery of life
is that everything that has every been created, beyond our understanding,
is greater and more complicated to completely revolve around us.

I like to think of us all as snowflakes created in a cloud
that slowly fall to Earth and are carried on the wind,
before finally settling on a snow-covered floor;
and as we descend, at times,
some of us look up to where we have come from,
and some of us look down to where we were seeded,
before eventually restarting the cycle all over again-
each time progressing our understanding of each-other
and quenching our desire to learn more,
which is a testament to our teachers:
those who inspire us to look inward and project outward;
those who encourage us to keep looking up,
even though they are no longer with us, who will always inspire us,
like the late, great, astronomer,
Sir Patrick Moore.

Dedicated to Sir Patrick Moore, 1923-2012

My Poem ‘Breaking the shell’

At the edge of the solar system,
an image of mankind reflects a pin-prick of light
from a distant yellow star that we here on Earth
like to call our sun-
this light has become dimmer, smaller, and more distant
with every passing year,
but it is still the brightest and the most powerful source of light,
life, heat, and attraction,
as it has been since its internal furnace was turned on
and light at the centre of our solar system first shone.

I cannot help but marvel at what we have all achieved here on our planet-
every form of life since our worlds inception
has seen its share of troubles, cataclysms, and hits,
but all life has evolved- one way or another, for better or for worse,
changed their ways- because they’ve had to,
because in life there are no exceptions.

We all want to live, we all want more,
we all want someone to share it all with,
we all want to know what it is all for;
we all ask questions, we all want answers-
even if it just one:
one question, one answer,
can be the difference between to where,
and for how long your life will run.

Our lives would not be worth living
if we never had Earth to sustain us,
without Earth we would all still be
microscopic particles of interstellar dust.

We are all children of Earth,
still gestating, developing, and evolving,
within the womb, within the egg that is our planet,
that is our solar system,
that is the surface of a universal wishing-well.
We are all so close to the moment,
to the edge of taking the next steps in our evolution-
as we break through the barriers that have prevented us until now
from breaking through the shell.

My Poem ‘The Dandelion Universe’

A dandelion head bobbing in the breeze-
a common sight to those who regularly venture-out into nature,
and the appearance of which, I have to say, always puts me at ease-
is incredibly inspiring to me;
because, even though it is small in stature,
it reminds me of something greater.

Looking at the head of a dandelion, to me,
is like looking at a physical capture of the spark, the seed,
the beginning and the evolution of the universe;
looking at a dandelion, and holding a head in my hands,
evokes a sense of the delicacy of life on Earth, and beyond-
on our planet, in our seas, in the skies of distant planets,
in the constant creation and destruction of distant lands.

When you look at a dandelion,
you would think that you are looking at an explosion
that has been frozen in time-
that is because you are,
and to me that is what is the most sublime.

Dandelions- like galaxies, maybe even universes-
come in many different stages and sizes,
and within their biology dandelions have many beneficial,
necessary, and life-sustaining, surprises.

When you see the seeds of a dandelion dispersing
and being blown into the wind-
the sight and the spectacle is beautiful to see,
but witnessing it happen can also make your heart sink;
however that is the universe in the smallest
and in the most simplest of examples:
think of the universe as a dandelion in a field
and you will understand that what we see,
and what we believe we know about life,
are nothing but insights, spoilers, and samples.

A dandelion, in all its forms, is an amazing sight,
and its seeds are a reminder to me that creation goes on
like the stars of the night sky-
expanding outwards, and never going in reverse-
that is why I believe that if we are looking to call the cosmos a name,
we should seriously consider calling all of creation
“The Dandelion Universe”.