Extraterrestrial Thoughts

Sleep is for the dead, and the uncurious,
So my eyes of course feel pasted wide open. 
There are two things I am brutally aware of: 
My heartbeat, 
And how small it sounds. 

This fleeting thought in my head is just one
Among billions I will have in my lifetime,
And I am just one mind, one mere cluster of billions of thoughts
Among this human population,
Among these billions who will ever live, and have lived. 

This planet, holding these billions of clusters of billions of thoughts 
Is just one planet among billions in this galaxy. 

This galaxy, with these billions of planets,
Hosting billions of clusters of billions of thoughts,
Is just one in this universe--

Point made. We are small. 
Infinitesimal. 

The universe is a storybook 
Thousands of pages long,
And here we stand upon the first word.
Tis a staircase ascending beyond the heavens,
And look at our feet, on the ground step. 

How can we waste our lives thinking
Of naught but ourselves,
When there is a sprawling and unfathomable darkness
Just above our heads?

How can we gossip, sneer, prune our egos like mindless robots as
Blushing nebulae unfurl on the far side of the clouds? 

Has our supposed intelligence really blessed us, 
Or are we doomed with this cursed self-awareness? 

Are dreamers like me on the verge of a breakthrough, 
Or are we just fools who can't take our eyes
Off of the stars? 

Author's Note

Mind barf at night. Leave thoughts. :)

Reviews

[Haeshin]

Sounds like a warning against hyper-intelligence, which may lead to hyper-introspection.

[Falling Leaf.]

We may be too self-aware. Thank you!

[Laura Lynn]

Sometimes I wonder what the words are saying and what topics I should be reading and learning about, looking at the stars and universe becomes figurative sometimes in our everyday worlds of practicality balancing the impracticalities,

[Falling Leaf.]

Thank you!

[MomzillaNC]

Puts me in rather facetiously mind of the Galaxy Song, from Monty Python

Whenever life gets you down, Mrs.Brown
And things seem hard or tough
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft
And you feel that you've had quite enough

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned
A sun that is the source of all our power

The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour
Of the galaxy we call the 'milky way'

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide

We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point
We go 'round every two hundred million years
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, the speed of light, you know
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is

So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space
'Cause there's bother all down here on Earth

Songwriters
IDLE, ERIC/DU PREZ, JOHN
Galaxy Song Lyrics | MetroLyrics

[Falling Leaf.]

A lovely song, thanks for your thoughts!

[MomzillaNC]

You're welcome. It's actually quite hilarious if you watch the Monty-Python video clip!

[Valentine]

A very truthful write. Sad part about it is...there was someone else that had the same thoughts possibly hundreds of years before you and other will years after we are gone.Valentine

[Falling Leaf.]

Indeed, so many will wonder but probably none will ever know. Thanks!

[R Smith]

a colossal write from here to the end of the universe and back all held within our brains, the breakthrough is there for the taking, we just have to reach mentally :)

[Falling Leaf.]

Thank you!

[willweb]

Great message in this and it opens my eyes. I really liked 'The universe is a storybook". What a great way to look at it.

[Falling Leaf.]

Thank you!