THANKS, D.H.

"Reality Doesn’t Exist Until We Measure It,

Quantum Experiment Confirms,” or so they’d

have us believe. Measure with what" I’d like

to know. And so would my Buddhist friend

who believes it isn’t there no matter what we do,

so why all the bother?

Socrates said "the unexamined life is not worth

living." Examination is measurement. Find

the meaning of “Life, the Universe and Everything?”

42 says “Been there, done that!” But 42 is wrong,

because it doesn’t even know the question.

Probably doesn’t care.

Poets look their whole lives for why we’re here at all, 

going deep, examining what’s worth all the trouble.

Are Keats, Lawrence or William Carlos Williams, sufficient?

Can we rest… or is reality nothing more than that S.E.P.

space ship on the edge of the pitch? You know…

Somebody Else’s Problem.

But wait! What problem? Reality? What the hell is that?

Some kind of place, or thing, or idea. Reality is a noun? 

The length of a ruler, or a minute or the quantum

value of love. Maybe it is the Yin and Yang of joy and pain.

And whose idea was it, anyway, to say it is there

just so we could measure it?

The answer is right here, inside. Wherever that is, just

waiting for us to come along and be AWARE… Reality

is “a woman in the sky before me, I did not know

I loved, but there she goes and her beauty hurts my heart;

I follow her down the night, begging her not to depart.”

Copyright,

Vol Lindsey

04/23 2023

Author's Note

Thanks to the ezine "Quantum Physics News, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," and D. H. Lawrence... forgiving me something to think about.

Reviews

[Lorry]

Reality only exists until you're looking for a spoon to stir your coffee, or why you counted 12 socks in the wash and only 11 out.
I used to think that reality only existed when I was asleep, but then I watched a twilight zone episode that explained things better with an episode about minutes being redone during the day and that was why we could never find out keys, because a workman forgot to put them back exactly where they were. 😊
I remember reality being more real when I was young, but I also remember being stalked by a slow driving car where the driver had a full clown suit and makeup on, as well as being in a pub once where a guy walked in and shot over a guys head, then waved his finger at him and walked out! According to police reports 318 people were in the toilet when it happened, including all the staff!
Ah, happy days. Before we all started getting watched by cctv, yet they still can't catch any criminals.
They can measure it all they like, but I still think reality doesn't exist... But if it does, they can keep it! 😊

[Vol]

My reality concurs... When I do a project, more than half my time is spent looking for the tool I just had in my hand... a problem often address by Rod Serling in The Twilight Zone.

[Lorry]

I even remember the twilight zone unintentionally messing with our heads, when the 1980's rebooted series had Bruce Willis, with a full head of hair!
I wonder if it's on any channels I get. I wish I had a projector to watch it backwards to see if it makes more sense to us now.
😊

[carl]

Not going to enter the discussion of is it? where is it, if it is? or, and if it is, what is it? Just going to say glad I was there along the way with my thumb out and thanks for a really enjoyable ride,. You can drop me of at the next intersection, looks like your headed into the sun and I forgot my thermal undergarments. -carl

[Ladysue]

Reality seems to have many avenues. It’s been said we don’t see things as they are but as we are. Reality? Perhaps. I don’t know. Your poem does make one think in the abstract. I love the last verse. Acute awareness of an inner world-a gripping reality. Excellent thought provoking poem. Will ponder this one for some time.

[emmajoygreen]

Question: is reality truly real or do we each make our own reality as a means to a beginning rather than an end? Your wording is far above my ability to understand complexities but methinks I got the gist of it Also, is reality a science? A science surely is supposed to be unmovable, I believe. Your long, interesting poem has set me thinking.. especially when a man ends with such a devoted final phrase. Romance is real, isn't it? Fine writing, sir.

[Vol]

Emma,
Thanks! The thing is, just who can actually determine the nature of reality (the reality of reality)? I used to tell my students that NOTHING happens outside my brainbox. Everything I sense as real comes through the stimulation of my various axons and neurons. Light comes in my eyes and things fire up, the same is true for each of the others. Apple pie fresh from then oven... the pie does not go into my nose, molecules in the air do not make it to my brain... the experience is just my stimulated nerve endings, combining with all the other electrical currents raging around what I think of as my brain... So. Is the pie real? How would I know? Is anything or everything I perceive more than my experience of it? Sigh...

[emmajoygreen]

I can only try to add what I think I understood but,. reality being what it is, we are different and see what we feel, Vol.

[Brad Dehler]

Hello Vol. This is my first read of yours. Thought provoking to say the least. At first i thought it was wild ramblings, then it felt like an intense discussion at a coffee house. Then I was thinking we were in a pub somewhere in oblivion; but with focus on the point outside of ourselves. Love the creativity sir

[Vol]

Brad,
Thank you for your response. The nature of reality is a subject I've long contemplated. On the one hand is acceptance of everyday experience, on another is the concept of "mind," and still another the concept of consciousness itself... there are many more!

[Alla Antsis]

What does exist mean anyway? Room for thought....Thank you for a complex poetry subject. Vol
You are brave

[Vol]

Alla,
Can you say "pithy?" "Succinct." I don't think I've ever seen a more powerful review. (DANG) And isn't that what it's all about? Room for thought?