Friday, February 22, 2013

46. Imagine

Imagine if you can
The processing power
Of the hundred billion neuron human brain
Which turned hunters and gatherers
Into space travelers
Now imagine if you can
The processing power
Of humanity's seven billion hundred billion neuron brains
Tethered together
Unravelling each mystery
Until the end of history
When one by one
We become time travellers when we enter eternity
Now imagine that if you can

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

46. Does it Really Matter

Could it be that consciousness
Is a property of matter's complexity
Emerging from the physical interaction of material reality
It could be according to the theory of complexity
Or could it be that consciousness
Is simply a non-material reality
Just another word for spirituality
A psychic property of the singularity
But then again does it really matter
Maybe
Maybe not
I need to give it more thought

Sunday, February 17, 2013

45. Bala and I

To go or not to go to TRU
Here's what I advise, my grandson
To thine own self be true
Set out on the grand journey life's prepared for you 
Travel swift and light
And keep in sight
The Guide within
Who will hold you on course
To the very end
Where Bala and I will be waiting for you

Saturday, February 16, 2013

44. Poetry for Me and My Posterity

All my working life
I've written for audiences both large and small
But my poetry
I write for me
And perhaps one or two of my posterity
Whom after I'm long gone
May take an interest in their ancestry

Friday, February 15, 2013

43. Written in Eternity

When I look back to a time before there was a me
Before the beginning of my story
I wonder about a future time when I'll cease to be
Will my story end in uncertainty
Hidden in the mystery of illusive reality
Or will my epilogue be written in eternity
And depend upon my chosen theology
The reason I labour to choose it wisely

Thursday, February 14, 2013

42. Poetic Genetics

Each word in a poem
Is like a gene in a chromosome
Together they form a life all of its own
Change a word or two
And the life form will change too

Saturday, February 9, 2013

41. The Scent of a Poem

For me, the emergence of an impending poem
Is signalled by a sudden impression
Accompanied by a thought
A feeling
A rhythm
A rhyme
A meaning
A message
A search for words
Each carefully chosen
Then sculpted and polished one by one
Until like flower petals they blossom into a poem
Emitting a scent all of its own
Intensely personal
Yet somehow universal

Thursday, February 7, 2013

40. It'll pass

It'll pass, she said
Fighting back tears
A widow living alone for more than 10 years
Now in failing health

Grieving yet another loss
An aging, ailing mother

Depending on the support of me and my brother
Fulfilling the promise we made to our long dead father
We'll take care of our mother and you're wife 
For the rest of her life

Sunday, February 3, 2013

39. One Of Those Talks


It was one of those talks between a father and son
About the near and distant past
About our genealogy
One comment stood out above the rest
Giving voice to a thought that until then I hadn't expressed
Our shared genes, my son, can push us forward or hold us back

But our shared values will pull us into the future and keep us on track

Friday, February 1, 2013

38. Power's Insistence

Force's demand always meets with resistance
But nothing and no one can resist
The persistence of power's insistence
When force meets power
Force gives way
As we learned from Gandhi, Mandela and MLK
The same truth taught by the one who showed us the Way
A lesson I need to remember
Whenever force demands I do something its way