Window on the universe

By Parson Thru

Sun, 29 Jul 2018
  • 3808 reads
18 comments
 

People are crossing the edge of the square
They’re looking at the ground
Warm black sky and pinprick lights above
I watch from the balcony
Buses, blue and new, are moving through the junction
Scooters shrilling horns
Taxis tumbling through like grains of rice
All dependent on the sky
And everybody’s looking down

I watch Mars fall away
We throw machines at Mars, Saturn and beyond
until they vanish, spent, along their lonely path
I read about a black hole at the centre of the galaxy
Above the square and terraces
Above the traffic; Sagittarius A*
is swallowing stars, bending light
Eating up the sky
And everybody’s looking down

 
Sagittarius A* - pronounced Sagittarius A star

Certificate U
Poem
Parson Thruses Dairy
Miscellaneous

Comments

Submitted by Stephen Thom on

Transportive rush; nice movement, sounds and images. Liked 'we throw machines at Mars - ', that's a cool line. Nice alliterative touches too, enjoyed yes

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Thanks Stephen. I really appreciate that. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

The repeated phrase And everybody’s looking down is very striking.

Actually even if we look up (which we should) we wouldn't see anything of the black hole, would we? I gather they're watching with interest its effect on the orbit of an approaching star, but I don't think they expect it to be drawn right in??

I couldn't help feeling the piece spoke like a metaphor of eyes glued on the every day material, no thought to 'looking up' to divine offers and activity and future. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Hi Rhiannon. It might be one called C2, I think. It swung close to the enormous gravity of something they are fairly sure from other observations is a supermassive black hole (there's a signature emission of particles/rays close to where they believe it sits) and the light wavelength of the star was seen to change, confirming one of Einstein's predictions on relativity. Red shift. 26,000 light years from our solar system, which brings in even more interesting ideas. I wouldn't think it's possible to observe the whole of our Galaxy as a spiral because we're out on one edge of it. If the black hole that was probably there 26,000 years ago is no longer there, would that have an effect now on the outer structure? Who knows? The mysteries of our funny little lives.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Parson Thru on

I only recall actually having a good view of the Milky Way on a few occasions. The rest of the time, the sky is too light or maybe we're facing the wrong way at night. Not sure. The problem is that black holes consume everything around them up to an "event horizon" or accretion disc where matter collects so the black hole itself doesn't emit much (to my knowledge). There's also a lot of gas and dust that obscures light energy across such distances. The things that are observed are usually particle or energy emissions at other wavelengths, such as x-rays (black holes emit a jet of matter it seems) apparently resulting from the interaction of those jets with other energy sources. They can also sometimes fall into mutual gravitational attraction with a star, forming a binary where one partner is invisible, but the behaviour of the visible star identifies the presence of its invisible partner. One group of scientists has been observing just one phenomenon around Sagittarius A* for 16 years to try to get an understanding. I don't think humans will ever fully understand. The universe even in our own neighbourhood is just too vast. Fascinating though.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

So often light 'pollution' seems to obscure our view even on clear nights. I keep meaning to try to get up into mid-Wales on a dark clear night for a good view, but forget in winter.

As you say, fascinating but beautiful, and puts us in mind of the limits of our power and intellect.

I'm not happy with the assumptions of extremely vast ages, and have read good suggestions as to how the universe though vast is not necessarily showing us 'pictures' of millions of years ago. The 'Big Bang' model has its problems, and there are other explanations of how stars can have an appearance of greater age than they have. It reminds me of the easy assumption that rock layers took millions of years to lay down, but many layers show sudden engulfment of fossils, and thick layers were formed very quickly after the Mt St Helen's eruption . There are very many evidences that the earth is not more than a maximum of about ten thousand years old. Maybe it is more comfortable to hope in billions of years if you somehow want a statistical possibility of chaos forming a man by chance! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

I spent a lovely weekend with a Cambridge astrophysicist who is a Christian. He seems pretty sure about the distances and about the speed at which light travels. The beauty of the free world is that we can choose what to believe in.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Just to say that I certainly wouldn't query the speed of light at present. You might be interested to know that there is also some interesting, well regarded work concerning relativistic time dllation theories, which I haven't got into (!) and concenring the effect of gravity of large mass on time. The 'Big Bang ' theory seems to have a 'horizon problem' concerning interchange of radiaion, and the missing 75% dark energy of the universe etc. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

A pensive moment in time captured so well in this poem Kevin. You're really good at creating the scene so that the reader feels like they are there.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Thanks for the encouragement Jenny. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I think what I like best is how you have made yourself the observer of the Earth and the sky, looking down on the lookers down and all our world of artificial light, and also up, at darkness eating infinity. Did you mean it to be a scary poem?

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Hi Di_Hard. No. It wasn’t intended to be, but that's why subjectivity is such an important part of any work. Hopefully not to the extent of Manson and "Helterskelter", but we can't govern what ideas might be triggered in our readers. The distances and timescales are almost beyond comprehension, and new neighbourhoods are coming into being as others are being consumed. Perhaps the whole thing is in a perfect equilibrium? There's something beautiful about that, don't you think? There might even be a little space in there for God. Or mice, if you prefer.

Parson Thru

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I might be happier if it were mice. It's all that stuff and no life that worries me. Or if there is life that would very likely be even more worrying. I have a lot in common with mice...

But I can still appreciate a good poem

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Little white mice seem harmless enough. I was quite a fan once.

Parson Thru

Submitted by celticman on

I like this. The meaning of the universe is...43. 

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

33 1/3

Cheers celt

Parson Thru

Submitted by Beekery on

I always appreciate well-delivered social commentary. Masterfully written with beautiful imagery.

 

Submitted by Parson Thru on

Thanks Beekery. Lovely comment.

Parson Thru