Conception

A simple poem with some complex ideas. My wife once said she liked it, so that must mean something. I cannot remember what event inspired it, but, it contains the recurring theme of time and the problems related to when events start and end. For me, it touches on the notion of the “Infinitesimal” in mathematics – the sort of concept that gets me to sleep at night when, eventually, my brain gives up and says it has had enough…

 

Conception

Somewhere beyond our comprehension

In a distant place, where even wisdom’s wild

Despite all obstacle or human tension

Within the mind of an innocent child

Are held the keys to a universe

Ideas that will change a way of life

A culture wherein exist diverse

Beliefs that transcend all earthly strife

 

Time there observed in a relative plane

The calendar, yet, to run its course

Where the wounded cannot feel their pain

And beings move without any force

This child cannot distinguish birth

From life, or death, or anguish

Only survival has objective worth

Every moment lived is lived with relish

 

That first struggle is not of our world

Though shared with every being

Neither warm nor cold, in cocoon curled

Those eyes do no sightseeing

We do not know this point in space

Nor live this moment in our time

The earliest memory of the human race

Here given life by rhythm and rhyme

 

When does our span start to exist?

What determines its coordinates?

Questions that our minds resist

Though the day, they say, for no man waits

Moments have no mortal meaning

Mere metaphysical perception

Not yet the washing and the weaning

Before all rational thought must come conception

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