The cosmic View of Life

based on the story of a troubled young climber who jumped to his death after a night atop the vertical Malham Crag in England

The cosmic view of life

 

atoms fused in stars which burned aeons ago

coalesce

a spark, and life forms

over the vast expanses of the universe

life starts to sense and interact

awareness dawns

self consciousness blossoms

lighting up the darkness

now here, now there

until

the lights flicker out

who knows?

who cares?

 

 

at sunset

a troubled young man sits atop

 the horseshoes sweep of Malham main crag

pondering

why?

as the sun rose

he felt the wind in his face

 and he flew!

 

Reviews

[Usman Muhammad]

Wonderful Imagery...
And he flew!
a poem being ended perfectly..
Now, I am wondering what was the motive or reason which lead him to take this step. There are many questions which arise in my mind but your story "Woody" seems to answer every question which comes into my mind.
The way, you have expressed feelings like "awareness" and "Self consciousness"..and given these feelings a life is wonderful to read..a totally new perspective.

[alanwgraham]

Thanks Usman. As you can see the stories are similar and both based on the story of an English cluimber who took his own life after spending a night on a cliff. No-one knows what was going through his mind. i have also used my own experience of being in the frame of mind that i described for Woody (ie mania)
Thanks again,
Alan

[Ben]

On the ball. I can see the imagery you have seen.

[alanwgraham]

Thanks Ben, I was trying to imaging what that climber might have thought as he sat all night on top of the crag.
Alan

[barleygirl]

This is an awesome visual word painting with some philosophical musings to go along nicely. The thing that really stood out to me is the idea that the stars we are now looking at may have burnt out eons ago . . . altho it's something I've known on some level, it just never occurred to me like that. It's a very original way to describe stars, which is one image that's been used a gazillion times in poetry. I'm left wondering if this was intentional suicide or a cliff jump gone wrong? Either way, I love the ending, becuz it's so concisely spectacular & lacking in sappy sentimentality.

[alanwgraham]

Thanks very much. I don't think anyone is too sure what happened. He (John Syrett) did spend the night atop the crag. He was depressed and had been drinking - we'll never know. This was the first poem that I'd written (apart from some rhyming verse). I was manic at the time and the poem just seemed to come out fully formed. Ten years later when i was writing my novel called 'Full Circle' (by Alan W Graham - Amazon) definately no obligation ha ha! I used this story to describe the experience of a stone age man experiencing mania. I have put that chapter called 'Woody' on my list of stories.
Thanks again and i look forward to looking at more of your work.
Alan