What is there, where there isn't any space?
The question was my daughter's, yesterday.
I groped for context: nothing commonplace
Would work ("Ya mean yer room?") -- the ev'ryday
Was not her subject. "Do you mean to ask,
The nowhere, where the universe is not?"
And she assented. Now I had the task,
With just the little knowledge that I've got,
Of keeping her from twisting in a knot.
"There's nothing, love. There isn't even Where."
(I knew it wasn't going well already.)
"But where are WE? And if there's nothing there,
Then what IS there?" (She held her thesis steady.)
"I told you how the universe was made,
Remember? From a singularity?"
She thought a moment, utterly unswayed,
And asked, "Where was it? Out, just floating free?"
"There wasn't any Where to float outside.
The Where was all inside. The Bang began..."
And then my son, who's younger, tried to hide;
The concept of a real, and finite span
That spacetime might one day have lived and died
Is more to ask, of such a little man,
Than he can hear today. His sister can.
She's working out the cosmos' greater plan.
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
Alysa Salzberg
Melissa Miles McCarter
Scarlett Sumac
jlsathre
Matt Paust
Jowita Bydlowska
Salon.com
Comments
Oh, so nice.
Better work on that before she's asking again - the questions are only gonna get harder :D.
Rated for attempts at honesty unsatisfying.
We should ask what "is"
Since where "where" must be
Is a mystery.
If "where"'s not there
It would be fair
To question the suggestion
(Which may give indigestion)
That "nowhere" can persist
If it does not exist.
You bracket the middle lines with those two longer stanzas that are very appealing to me because they mimic Rhyme Royal, my favorite form, particularly with the closing couplets. I can only wonder when you are going to settle on perfect Rhyme Royal after concluding that you are otherwise attempting to reinvent the wheel.
your daughter and my youngest would turn out best friends if they met
ah, the questions
loved this, and for some reason, the word singularity and the Where was all inside line speak to me so
it made me think of a self contained seed and how things can be created out of nothing
such is poetry, the creation of singularities
Who wonders and asks… Where? Why? and, But, how?
Brings a smile to my face. ‘Tis a joy missed.
Hold them close, DB, while I reminisce!
Thank you Oryoki, maddiesdad, Seer, Algis, anna1, Jan, Pilgrim, Kate, and vanessa. I get a tremendous thrill out of seeing each of you.
Brassawe, you have practically thrown down the gauntlet! You're right, I am indeed reinventing the wheel. And a stanza of ababbcc (I looked it up) looks extremely attractive -- those last four lines would bring an idea in for a nice soft landing.
Thanks everyone. It is a continued great pleasure to have you here.
Goodnight!