Hope has Risen
Hope arises as vision from a fog
A wisp of thought, walks without
Footprints from center of the bog
Until it appears in the troubled mind
As a someone we should know
And yet we are afraid of what we find
In the struggles of a difficult moment
We too often lose hope in the word
And what the spirit of all may foment
For we must be of faith in the great rising
And with wondrous gifts we will prevail
Into a future even better and surprising
Transfixed
We are fortunate to know the hows
of the universe, the science of most
while still being wholly astonished
by its beauty and mystery and whys
of a universe that presents
itself to our senses, to our minds
and lives in our hearts and souls
along with bright and dark energy
and time and space warping black holes.
We are one with this world,
we are the stuff of stardust.
This world gives us life and so we
must be kind to our mother
who bore us to moments
of insight and beauty
that leave us amazed
and transfixed as we
gaze upon the countenance
of this universe
with still no meaning found
just many more questions
and entropy of words abound.
“R’s”
react, resolve, rationalize, repeat…
render, redo, recommend, repeat…
relax, release, remember, repeat…
Singularity
An event. A time. A place.
That changes the direction of life
putting not just one, but all that follow
on a different path that is irresistible
irrefutable and intersecting with other
paths in ways wholly unforeseeable.
Embrace these moments, for without them
we would not exist in the form we now know
and without such, we would be untethered
to the past and discontinuous from the future.
―
Light
He said, let there be light
a gift to conquer the night
and so that you understand,
stars are too, part of the plan
and in between
……darkness makes no sound
awaiting the light,
……hiding so as not to be found.
So banish your worries to the setting sun
where they burn into passion
and upon morning break,
allow it to reflect back to you
in the delight of brilliant skies so blue
as darkness must
…….it continues to run and hide
For we’ll look to the light
……of life to rule and decide.
Backwards
Today is good morning,
How it usually starts
For why would it not ?
Start that is…
Or rather it be evening
And we we start with dinner
And you ask me
What we will do for breakfast?
Dedicated to the thousands that invest decades toward exploration as a human necessity!
Perseverance
I saw a bright light in his eyes
as he told me he had to leave.
He needed to follow his dream
… there was life out there!
… not “if” there was life out there,
and he would find it.
Brilliant engineer and team leader
with unbounded passion.
Not unlike a kid that says he’ll play for the Yankees
but no, much more so, with a plan and preparation,
not in the sense that you or I see.
But in a swirl of ideas, a grand quest
which makes us extraordinary.
This is the best of humanity
it is poetry, art, a higher purpose.
On the shoulders of thousands and more
to lead where few could go… to persevere.
I saw those same eyes, decades later, above a mask
In mission control and as
Perseverance touched down
I saw this light still burned bright
Passion drives us toward anxiety or commitment.
The ability to concentrate and work through to solutions within the realm of our possibilities is the difference between anxiety and commitment.
One destructive and instructive, the other constructive.
I wrote a poem today, but I don’t like it much. So I thought I’d write about what I’m thinking… then maybe you can tell me what you think.
I was thinking this week that we shall see the deaths in our country exceed half-million due to a pandemic that was at first denied, then for political convenience a delayed response, while science which is too often denied, still came to the rescue, to create a chance for us to weather this storm, and to enjoy the joy of a rainbow rather than the ugly arch of recent history.
Each raindrop is about 1/480th of an ounce.. a half-million raindrops is 8 gallons of water. Imagining this much rain, enough to drown in. A half-million deaths, is more than we endured in two world-wars and the vietnam war, all within one year… and yet we are numb to the numbers… we cannot relate to the loss. We see only the recovery. The rainbow is the arch we look to… and maybe this is what makes us human, the unrelenting hope for a better future.
Well here is the poem I wrote… but I am torn about what message is sensible in this understanding… what message should I look to?
A Half-Million Raindrops
The arch of history bends
As does light through rain
And wet on our faces tends
Not in anticipation of a rain-
bow, rather tears that lends
Onto the loss of souls in the reign
Of sickness that portends
A half-million drops of rain
An eight gallon loss sends
Us swirling down the drain
As this arch surely never mends
While we seek rather in the main
The joy a rainbow arch sends
Waiting to be Found
How many children are like spare change
Lost wherever guardians rested
Valued only when someone digs deep
Between the cushions of safety and horrors
Of cough drops, tissues, decaying food
Of violence and poverty and pain
To be found and pulled from oblivion
And with a bit of shine, to be a value
To be exchanged for sweetness
Of ideas of survival, of nobleness
Of humanity and inspiration
For those of us who never
Knew the pangs of being lost