Prelude to life

Short poem, the opening and beginning world building

Prelude

There was no despair. There was no hope. There was no joy, no rocks, no grass or love or windows. There were no sounds of children laughing or hounds baying. There was no thought, mathematics, cookies, trees, beaches, or bad hair days. In fact, there were no days or nights at all. There was nothing, only silence so loud it filled the expanse. It was cold with no emotion to fill it. The universe simply was and was not. It was a strange time for the universe. It did not know what to do with itself. With this much space, it could be anything. It is already everything, but it is nothing at all.

The universe thought long and hard about what it wanted to be. As it thought, it realized it was having ideas. As it realized this, a tiny light shone through the expanse. The first light, the first idea, the first sun. This idea was simply about how it the universe had never had an idea before. The universe was quite pleased about its own self-awareness and began having another. This idea was to actually create something to adorn the ideas the universe was sprouting.

Fleeting thoughts took form, solidifying into abstract shapes sent spinning after the ideas. Thoughts on what to adorn the ideas with burst forth finding their home and dancing around and around this idea. As thoughts became more solid, so did the shape they took. Massive marbles made of gas, small hardened pearls, and dense clusters of rock all gathering and leaving to find their own paths. This cycle went on for centuries, stretching on to eons. An idea would come about, thoughts would form around these ideas, and these suns and planets became a family.

The expanse became full of thoughts and ideas but it did nothing for the silence. Planets and suns would live entire lives knowing nothing but their own being grounded by which idea had come forth. These families would form together, grow together, and die together. Some ideas were better than others, glowing brighter and attracting more solid thoughts. Others were weak suns, not worth more than a few rocks, and would be forgotten and die shortly after being made. These weak suns became a more frequent occurrence as the universe ran out of things to think about or realized it had already thought about something similar before. The goings on of the universe had no one to record this story and it began losing track of what it was doing. There was no way to keep memories alive, so these families would be snuffed out, the ideas and thoughts gone forever.

Idea Number 23,642 was about such a record keeper and was the brightest sun to have formed since the first so many eons prior. Why shouldn’t there be something to keep track of all that has happened and all that has yet to happen? Thoughts formed around this idea about what such duties they would have, how they would move between families, whether or not they should be solid or gaseous. Solid seemed the best choice, though an argument could be made on both sides for the sake of omnipotence. This family continued growing as more thoughts came forward, joining the already overcrowded planets surrounding this sun.

The idea halted at 18 planets. All sides having been considered, all thoughts fully formed, a conclusion was reached. The only thing left to do was to create this historian. Each completed thought contributed how they shall travel and where to start first. The smallest thought on the outer most edge of the family held the most important piece of the puzzle. The record keeper was to be unlike anything that has come from the universe so far. This keeper was to have free thoughts and free will.

A deafening cry echoed across the silence.