[{"_1":2,"_30":-5,"_31":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4},"routes/__layout/tag.$name",{"_5":6,"_7":8},"tagName","existential","posts",[9],{"_10":11,"_12":13,"_14":15,"_16":17,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":23,"_24":25,"_26":27,"_28":29},"id",871,"title","Why so down?","excerpt","A poem reminding us that we live on a lucky rock, shielded from a nuclear sun, wrapped in living green, replenished by purifying rain. A million die each day, yet more are born. How dare we complain?","body","\r
\n\r
\n

Are you down? Are you out?\r
\nThink the world's too much to bear?\r
\nHave you ever looked around\r
\nAnd seen what's really here?\r
\nWe live upon a ball of rock\r
\nThat spins through deadly, endless night\r
\nWe don't fall off, though we fall down\r
\nOur planet saves our lives\r
\n

Looking off our ball of rock\r
\nA cosmic stone's throw far away\r
\nWe see a giant, vicious bomb\r
\nIs letting out its deadly rays\r
\nOur ball of rock steps in again\r
\nWith a shield of empty space\r
\nA few conteptous beams break through\r
\nAnd shine their light upon our face\r
\n

Some tiny beams that make it through\r
\nStrike down into brief, fragile things\r
\nWhich grow and feed all other life\r
\nFrom mortal men to mighty wings\r
\nThe fragile creatures spread their branches\r
\nAnd form an endless canopy\r
\nOf vibrant, pure and wondrous life.\r
\nWe wander through, unthinkingly\r
\n

The tiny beams that strike them not\r
\nBeat down upon an endless sea\r
\nAnd raise out of it every day\r
\nMore life than we will ever see\r
\nThe life falls down upon our rock\r
\nThe life is clean and purified\r
\nPart of a system more complex\r
\nThan any one man has designed\r
\n

Every day, a million of us\r
\nGo to meet our final rest\r
\nYet with every coming dawn\r
\nThe bomb sheds life on more of us\r
\nHow can we tell of our sadness\r
\nWhen we're greater every day\r
\nHow can we speak of drops of water?\r
\nThe river flows the other way\r
\n

How petty do our problems seem\r
\nCompared to those our planet faces\r
\nHow ungrateful must we seem\r
\nTo bicker of our lucky places\r
\nWe live upon a ball of rock\r
\nOasis in a cold black desert\r
\nYet we complain of our conditions\r
\nAs if the desert's so much better\r
\n\r
\n\r
\n\r
\n

(only for 2nd stanza onwards)\r
\n\r
\n

The light that makes it through feeds plants that feed the world, covering it with an endless canopy of pure, green life through which we wander unthinkingly. The same rays of nothing hit an endless sea and raise more water every day than any thing we've ever made can ever hope to achieve, purifying it totally and feeding a complex, endless cycle that keeps us up and running, complaining of the heat and rain. Every day, a million people go to meet their final rest, yet every coming dawn the bomb sheds life upon still more of us. How petty do our problems seems compared with those a planet faces, how ungrateful must we seem to bicker of our lucky places in an oasis of life and love surrounded by an endless nothing where no soul could survive.\r
\n\r
\n","updated",["D",1018929212000],"created",["D",1018929212000],"codename","why_so_down","legacy_id","2476","published",["D",1018929212000],"draft",false,"actionData","errors"]

Posts tagged “existential”