Have you ever looked up at the night sky, sprinkled with stars, and asked yourself where you stand in the universe? This poem was inspired by such an experience of mine. While we are as insignificant as an atom in our own bodies, and our actions may not be remembered years down the road, what we feel and how we make others feel in our brief time on earth makes a tremendous impact, and I think that is the beauty of life.
They say every atom in our bodies
was once a star.
We’re a universe, within a universe.
Encapsulated in a multitudinous sea of worlds,
Too many stories,
Too many people,
Too many possibilities
out of reach.
How small we are.
If you ask me,
the secrets of the universe don’t lie in ancient scrolls,
inscribed on faraway planets
or buried beneath treacherous seas.
They’re hidden in the turns and twists
of the DNA ladder.
And in this cosmos,
we are but the atom.
And in some convoluted way,
that makes us the answer to it all.
There’s a power in a belief,
in a dream.
A kind of power that knows no bounds,
running rampant across the woods,
over each creek and crevice,
until every last leaf sears in the heat,
the forest alight with fire;
Blazing, burning, bristling.
There’s power in quiet,
in love.
Not always eternal,
not always ablaze with the heat of adrenaline.
Yet, the universe always feels it.
Even for the briefest of seconds,
when two worlds collide,
and the atoms bind.
There’s power in the atoms,
this much is clear.
We break, we burst, we brusque.
And the universe knows.
She was here long before us,
and she will stay long after us,
Sealing and shattering,
Crashing and curing.
And here we lay,
within her,
So small yet so powerful.
I guess that’s what they mean when they say,
every atom in our bodies
was once a star.
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