Star gazing (or what I learned from one hour with Stephen Hawking)
We are made from the stuff of stars,
in the beginning there was
no outside, everything was inside
gravity is the hero of the universe
it pulls together what has been exploded
iron does not create energy when it fuses
so the fire at the heart of the star
starts to die
the death of a star is called a super nova
it is the birth of something new
black holes form when a star
comes to the end of its life
when a star explodes it makes a cloud
called a nebula
nebuli are beautiful
our sun was created when a whole lot
of hydrogen fused together
the earth is made from minerals and rock
the universe is expanding, ever expanding
those stars that look red in the night sky,
they are galaxies moving away from us
things are born, they create energy
they explode and all the bits
are blown away, then eventually
the bits are pulled back together
and something new is formed, that
is how stuff is made
there is more than optimism to this
it is expansion, it is wonder
it lifts us out of ourselves, physics
is a religion, but there is
no punishment and no reward
it is just exploding and dispersing
and fusing, each body is an atom
that is made in the same way the
universe was formed
my body in the night sky
is dancing, I run on the earth
which lifts to hold me
my serious face, like gravity,
slowly pulls objects together
and turns in on itself
when it goes unchallenged,
bring hydrogen! bring helium!
touch the gold and silver and platinum
that are forged in the heart
of an exploding star, the cosmos
is born from imperfection
mistakes make life
a perfect state is a dead state
nothing comes from stasis
see where the blobs of gas are thicker
see where they are thin
in between is where
the good stuff happens
the stuff of stars
the stuff of us.