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the actual pingpong of the abyss

THIS POEM

these words
temporary rearrangements
of physical matter to
facilitate and reflect
the temporal flow of
mental matter what
one might wonder
does it even matter?
Indeed if one
thinks in cause
and effect mechanical
means one seeks
to find meaning or
not in quids and
quos in zero sums.
Slice and dice
divide and conquer
the modus operandi
of our prosaic
habitude.
That is what is
visible to our
sensory organs
so that is as far
as we often are
willing to try to see.
But seeing is not
constrained by
optics not if one is
willing to try to see
past apparent patterns
of cause and effect
to the holistic
force field of
karmic potential.
It is there that
matter’s antimatter
rearranges itself
into new effusions of
material appearance.

A poem
could
reverberate
in sympathetic
mental harmonics
disappear
and then
reemerge
sometime later
as an otherwise
unlikely
sprouting idea
or even a
newborn
behavior.

WHAT DOES IT MATTER

that we might commit
suicide—negligent or
otherwise—and take
the rest of the
neighborhood down
with us already?
Is it really
a cosmic crime?
Yeah sure it’s
a crime by any
of our own
value systems
that purport to
matter but
really in the
larger scheme
of things with
the Earth just an
infinitesimally
small mote in an
infinitely expansive
starry simoom
what does it
really matter if
the strange attractions
of one particular
particle change
their colors to
those of an
arch-rival charm
school? To live
and die by
colors who’d
be so petty so
silly so careless
so stereotypical?
Because after all
those of us who
really know or
at least believe
we know—even
if we know we
only believe we
know—know
that all is one
anyway right?
And if it’s all
one in the larger
scheme of things
then it is what it is
that’s all she wrote
fuggeddaboutit.
Don’t worry be happy.
But then here’s the
conundrum. If all
is oneness what is
an avatar? What
is that apparent
opening to a
higher dimension
that appears among
the denizens of
lesser levels of
consciousness
we the unwashed
who can only
think and conceive
in binary terms
of worthiness?

I have a theory.
At least it might
look like a theory
to anyone not
me for whom
it is actually my
Kosmosanschauung
my way of experiencing
being.
I call it the fractiverse
and it is particularly one.

To explain it
I need to draw
a mental picture.

  1. Imagine a glass sphere
    of say twelve inches
    in diameter. Now
    imagine a four inch
    long glass tube
    bent into the
    shape of a U.
  2. Embed this
    tube into the
    interior surface
    of the sphere
    so the U-tube’s
    openings each
    open to and
    fuse with the
    exterior surface
    of the sphere.
  3. Connect an inverted
    U-tube to the outside
    of the sphere so that
    one end opens to the
    interior surface of
    the sphere and the
    other end connects
    to one end of
    the first U-tube.
  4. What we have
    now is a structure
    that I call an
    S-tube made up
    of two U-tubes
    connecting together
    at the surface of the
    sphere and each
    opening to the
    opposite side of
    the sphere from
    the other.
  5. For the sake
    of conceptual
    clarity let’s have
    each end of
    the S-tube open
    to it’s surface of
    the sphere in a
    trumpet-bell-shaped
    curving funnel so
    that each surface
    of the sphere—the
    exterior and the
    interior—connects
    to the interior of
    the S-tube in
    a smooth and
    seamless transition.
  6. Notice now
    that an adventurous
    ant can take a
    stroll on the exterior
    surface of the sphere
    and ease down into
    the S-tube opening
    and traverse it
    end to end
    until the S-tube
    opens gracefully
    into and onto the
    interior surface
    of the sphere.
    (Notice also that
    the ant has
    travelled from the
    outside of the
    sphere to its
    inside while
    staying always
    on the self same
    surface.
    A topologist—those
    mathematicians
    who cannot tell the
    difference between
    a coffee cup and
    a donut—will
    recognize in a
    Cupertino nanosecond
    that the glass globe
    with the embedded
    U-tube is actually a
    Klein Bottle.)
  7. Now imagine
    that the exterior
    opening of the S-tube
    is like a whirlpool
    and the surface of
    the sphere is being
    sucked downward
    into the S-tube
    and flowing outward
    onto the interior
    surface of the sphere.
  8. Imagine a second
    S-tube with a flow
    from the interior to
    the exterior to balance
    out the influx from
    the first S-tube.
  9. Our glass globe
    now has a flow from
    its exterior surface
    down into the first
    S-tube out onto its
    interior surface then
    up into the second
    S-tube and out
    again onto its
    exterior surface
    where it began.
    We have now
    what is known as
    a closed system.
  10. Imagine
    now hundreds
    thousands trillions
    septillions
    an infinite
    number of
    S-tube pairs
    in the surface
    of our globe.
    (Let’s let it
    be infinitely
    larger than
    twelve inches
    in diameter
    to facilitate
    this image.)
  11. Now let
    us imagine an
    infinite profusion
    of smaller S-tubes
    embedded in the
    surface of our
    existing S-tubes.
  12. And again let
    us consider more
    S-tubes embedded
    in S-tubes and continue
    the progression
    ad infinitum.
  13. Now let us
    define the inward
    flowing S-tubes
    as black holes
    and the outward
    flowing S-tubes
    as stars.
    For the sake of
    familiarity we
    can call the larger
    collections of S-tubes
    within S-tubes
    galaxies and nebulae.
  14. The medium sized
    collections of S-tubes
    we can call recognizable
    matter for example
    mountain ranges
    butterflies test
    tubes redwood trees
    and polycarbonate
    refuse.
  15. The smaller sized
    collections of S-tubes
    we can call atoms
    and subatomic
    particles.
  16. Needless to say
    larger medium
    and smaller are
    only characteristics
    of an infinite
    spectrum of scale
    of S-tubes within
    S-tubes.
  17. If we take this
    fractiverse as our
    Kosmosanschauung
    we can see there is
    a complete balance
    of expansion—the
    outflow from
    S-tubes—with
    contraction—the
    inflow into S-tubes.
    Thus we see that
    the conventional view
    of a big bang and an
    expanding universe
    is merely a parochial
    perspective in an
    infinitesimally limited
    sub-section of the
    entire fabric of
    the fractiverse.
  18. With the model
    this cosmogeny offers
    we see that the unified
    integrity of the
    fractiverse comprises
    an enduring state of
    primordial oneness and
    at the same time a
    profoundly infinite
    profusion of
    particularity.
  19. Everything we
    see in our limited
    scope of scale-constrained
    perceptivity is at once
    the apparent material
    of the effusion of outward
    flowing S-tubes coupled
    with its invisible inward
    flowing anti-material
    counterbalance.

So is there a
cosmic code of
ethics? I think
it is rational to
consider that if
there are ethics
at any scale of
the fractiverse
they will be
reflected at
all scales so
yes there is a
cosmic code of ethics
and yes it matters
if we commit
suicide—negligently
or otherwise.

URGENCY

comes upon us
in many piebald
guises like so
many sharp and
shining devices
tossed and cycled
aloft by the crafty
artiste balancing
on the unicycle
on the globe
on the back
of the tortise
swimming in the
desert of the
universal skies.

Star light
spots us as
we balance
precariously
as we invert
the balancing
act by artfully
juggling
our energies
our attention
our priorities
our hopes
and fears
our urgencies
our lives.

The roots
stretch thirsty
to the liquid
web of the
spot light
starry night.
The branches
clutch our
devices offering
them Earthward
as supplications
to the Mother
as if we could honor
her with but a
single dimension
of our busyness
our distraction.
As if gravity
pulls in only
one direction.
As if the stars
make no demands
upon our being
in and amongst
them and their
gravid splendor.

Where am I?
Where are you?
It was it is
a rhetorical
question when
considered in the
context of stellar
attraction the
push me pull you
of universal flow
expanding or
contracting
depending
on the tossing
of the juggler’s
backstage dice.

WEDDING DAY

this day today.        
Green is
the color
of the
jewel delight
the gardens
the flowers
profuse with
additional hues.
Cries in the
night our
ears may
want to harken
not to what
is not
pleasant
what hurts
our eyes’ imaginings
our deepest fears
and trepidations
wedding the primordial
oneness reflexively
eternally
today.

HERE’S THE IDEA,

the premise,
the promise of
the uncertainty
I am blessed with
bearing, ever, and
baring, now.
I know I don’t know,
of that I am as close
to certain as I can be.
Maybe it began with
the not noing of my
letting go of my
adolescent atheism,
once upon a time.
Maybe it began in
another lifetime,
I don’t know, and
I don’t no.

But the idea,
the premise, the promise
is simple: flow, the
certain uncertainty
of change, of
transmogrification,
of shape shifting.

Ah, the I-Ching,
God playing craps
with the universe?
Maybe; then again,
maybe not.

Slipping into
slumber, soaking
in the bathtub,
agog at it all,
bemused and de-mused,
waiting for words
to flow like
the hot water
I am fortunate
to enjoy
(for now).

Where’s the idea?
Where’s the rest of me?
Floating, amorphous,
a glowing plasma
of intentions,
unready to
congeal and
reveal its form,
its content.
Toying coyly with my trust.

I can wait.
I can be patient.
I believe in my trust.
I trust in my belief.
Observe and Accept,
Choose and Act !
All in the flow
of good time.
That much I
know I know.

That’s not the
idea I was after,
but it will do
(for now).

meta

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