The Dark Universe- Celestial Rings by wbiro at All poetry

The Dark Universe:
A PRELUDE

Musical Interlude: Celestial Rings

I: Celestial Rings

" ...and they searched for answers within the celestial rings"

Harmony and balance,

two invisible companions found within the Celestial Rings...

A dark universe,
expanding into the distance unknown
beyond the Event Horizon,
accelerating away in every direction...

and in a remote corner,
a new shadow grows upon the celestial rings...

the owners of the shadow witness nascent evolution...

they endeavor to understand,
molding embryonic models of the universe
that reform, change, evolve
with every inconsistency,
with every queer anomaly and unexpected discovery...

they do not rest...
they encounter phenomena that are massive, beautiful...

jagged, dangerous...

Intergalactic debris
among dense clusters of spiraling galaxies
strewn where celestial rings form...

The shadow owners race to unravel the mysteries

before the universe dies,
before particles evaporate

and disappear into nothingness...

they wonder if there are answers in the rings,
pieces of a puzzle suspended before them...

they find balance, force, music, and harmony...

yet they brace for calamity...

Musical Interlude: Little Spacemen

Part II: Little Spacemen

"...and they shall leave the shadows of their homeworld and venture forth... and be little."

Tapping, probing, scratching, drilling into crusts

that have settled over eons of time,
searching for treasures and answers,
uncovering more questions...

A cataclysmic explosion 145 million years ago
emits a deadly burst of gamma rays that end all life in its entire galaxy
and in one hundred adjacent galaxies...

planets are sterilized,
and must begin again to host life...

and it arrives...

scratching, probing, tapping, drilling,

searching for treasures and answers...

and finding them

in abundance...

with more questions...

they wonder

and inch closer to unraveling their own creation...

Seeking a solution to the universe
between matter and energy
they strive prevent the universe from scattering,
and after that from evaporating into nothingness
in a few hundred trillion-trillion-trillion-trillion years...

Deep
within the core of an unstable star
a pocket of gamma rays are released;
skirting the edge of a solar flare in the chromosphere
they are deflect on a new course,
vectoring toward an orbiting blue gas planet and its moons...

clouds surrounding the planet are ionized,
illuminated;
the subsurface moisture of a large moon
and in the ionized clouds themselves
stir sparks of life...

and a little spaceman is there to behold and make official note of it...

To My Dearest,

~On this date from the twilight came a new dawn,
when, obscured within clouds of interstellar dusts
that slowly collect to form new stars, planets and moons,
a star went nova, blowing all my apparatus away

with a monumental burst of super-heated gasses...

~This mission has ended.
I am returning home to you now for a time.
I have passed under galactic fountains
and through the galactic rain.
I have visited globular clusters in eccentric orbits
and have studied stars older than the galaxy itself.

~My mission has taken me around our local group of galaxies.
In intergalactic space I have seen lost planets and stars,
pulled from their home galaxies
in losing gravity duels with the black holes at the galaxy cores...

~I have taken wild rides in high-velocity galactic clouds;
I've collected enough dark matter from around the galactic halo
to fill our garden pond...

~I thought I would never see you again, my dearest-
As I approached a neutron star spinning as a pulsar
I encountered an unexpected black hole wandering the galaxy...
I escaped with the greatest of luck, having been thrust outward
when I hitched a ride on a polar jet of subatomic particles...

~I have crisscrossed tidal tails of stars and dust
that trail behind small orbiting galaxies and star-clouds
as they are shredded into debris and swallowed whole by much larger galaxies...

~My next mission is to Andromeda,

but first a long and needed reprieve with you, my dearest.

~Will be with you soon.
All my love,
your Galactic Ranger

so the little spaceman documents the event...
sends his data in, and,
gathering a few relics, turns,
and navigates home...

he collects relics of matter and energy

mementos of space and time

of his time spent in this universe.

Musical Interlude: Elliptical Orbits

Part III: Elliptical Orbits

"...and the celestial heavens dance on planetary scales..."

Quasars
eclipsed by small moons trailing ionic tails
the old and the ancient boiling and bubbling away from super-heated oceans...

matter pulled toward a singularity
existing at the center of a black hole
the most stable point in the universe...

for the time being...

perhaps the destiny of all moons
and their planets...

A small silicate planet
reaches aphelion once again...

and two Magellanic clouds watch
from along the elliptical rim of the galaxy...

they see the birth of planets...

they see planets live and glitter with life...

they glimpse wandering planets hidden in hot clouds of interstellar dust...

and they see planets stark and naked,
ever dead...

perhaps this universe is just a child's dream...

of varied hues...

and unlikely alignments...

The Jovian moons of Galileo-
Ganymede, Callisto, Europa, Io
in a ballet on our celestial doorstep-

they pirouette past their perigees
and orbit to the rhythm of the distant cosmic background...

where a frozen planetoid straddles the edge of light...

Musical Interlude: Matter Energy Space Time

Part IV: Matter Energy Space Time

...and they beheld a plasmic spectacle playing out in all its splendid grandeur..."

Life
searches for a new home

it finds itself tossed upon the swirling icy mists
of space and time, matter and energy...

and finding a foothold

it flourishes...

creating a living planet...

some planets resist, and life struggles to survive...

and the battle is sometimes lost...

it hitches the next ride...
and sometimes must wait ages

to begin again...

Musical Interlude: Alien Technologies

Part V: Alien Technologies

"...and the first explorers arrived, and motored around on cosmic stardust..."

Probes probing matter, energy, space, and time...

In a trillion years
when hydrogen depletes,
gone will be the stuff of new stars,
they will smolder out; gone will be the free energy

that fell from the sky...

their cinders will be stirred and poked
by alien technologies...

that learn and adapt...

discover and explore...

yearn to advance...

perhaps only to find themselves in a mirrored-universe...

living life as matter, ever seeking energy

in time and space...

journeying to the next event horizon
in their quest for answers...

where they can be found tapping, drilling, scratching and searching

sowing and reaping
in the universe they are intertwined with...

Musical Interlude: Cataclysms

Part VI: Cataclysms

"...and they came without warning, from beyond our senses and conceptions,
from the dark universe..."

In inner regions of galaxies
dense with carbon planets that rain gasoline
studded with diamonds,
bombarded by lethal radiation, devoid of life...

these are crowded, dangerous places...

violent places...

where probes are sent
and probes are doomed

where dawns meet twilights...

In a few hundred
trillion-trillion-trillion-trillion years
there will be only empty space
and black holes

gradually their protons, neutrons, and all other particles
will evaporate and disappear into nothingness...

in ten thousand trillion-trillion-trillion-trillion years...

so the model goes... there are still many, many dangers to face and discoveries to make; let the journey begin...

Musical Interlude: A Dark Universe

A Dark Universe

Expanding
at near light-speed and light-years away
into the cold and empty distance
goes the dark universe
never to reform...

Owners of shadows
reach beyond their event horizons
to reclaim what is theirs
accelerating
headlong into the dark universe,
tumbling after it,
to grab onto that which they are made of...

A trillion years hence
the universe will be bereft of hydrogen
the stuff of new stars
consumed, gone-
gone the bright stars we know,
in a universe of dark matter... and dark stars...

Dark stars
that do not need hydrogen
after the stars we know smolder out...
gone the free energy falling from the sky
only cinders
for distant civilizations to harvest...

Who
will tell the story of this universe?

The intergalactic rubble strewn about,
spiral galaxies spinning in gravity-bound clusters...
From the breath
began the chaos
of this universe...
hurtling
toward its half-life
then until every last particle evaporates and disappears
perhaps back into the energy it came from...

In
such twilights are mixed the dawns
with beginnings
that may rely upon us...

Invisible worlds
orbiting mother suns cradled in clouds of galactic dust-
dust collected eons ago and now planet-producing nebula...

A young star surrounded by such dust shudders
as an old nearby star goes nova,
blowing the young star's dust away
and leaving behind a hardened carbon core...

The inner region
of a galaxy rotates in a dense bar of suns and matter,
carbon planets seethe with oceans of tar,
are studded with diamonds, and rain gasoline...

Bombarded
with lethal radiation and devoid of life
they are harsh places, not for us quite yet-

Us,
young, vulnerable,
riding upon a sweeping arm of a distant galaxy
composed of billions of suns...

In
the deep hot core
of a solitary star
a burst of gamma rays, let loose
flash through the surface...

Ultra-luminous pulses
instantly achieving escape velocity
deflected by the intense gravitational field
weave their way through the complexities of the chromosphere
and rain upon a blue planet and its moons,
sparks of life...

Frozen moons
from distant quasars
mingle among stellar bodies,
trailing ionic tails

Stripped of their old and ancient histories
oceans boil
as they near their inevitable end within a singularity
dwelling at the center of a galaxy-swallowing black hole.

Galileo's Jovian moons
dance upon our cosmic doorstep under the spotlight of the sun-
Ganymede, Callisto, Europa, Io

They pirouette at their perigees
around their gas giant host...
keeping the rhythm of the music of a distant cosmic background
conducted from the edges of our scattering universe...

Earth,
a silicate planet, home to life,
spins past its aphelion, shivering at its coldest point furthest from the sun...

At a silent distance
two Magellanic clouds watch the planet-fest
from the elliptical rim of a young galaxy...

In a few hundred
trillion-trillion-trillion-trillion years
there will be only the empty void of space
and black holes
that slowly evaporate, particle by particle, into nothingness...

Will you join me,
I have a few tickets to the show-
we will be there when the last proton disappears
and evaporates into nothingness;
it will be billed
"The Final Moment of the Dark Universe."

and this,
in only ten thousand trillion-trillion-trillion-trillion years,
so the model goes...

maybe we should make plans for only one trillion-trillion-trillion-trillion years at a time...

Before the end,
there are many, many dangers to face
and journeys to begin...

To fight the end-
now there is a worthy pursuit.

Space art from: www.solarvoyager.com and www.novacelestia.com
(music interludes and thoughts by yours truly...)

picture titles and artists have been embedded in their respective filenames

Author notes

Written September 30th, 2006

Space art from: www.solarvoyager.com and www.novacelestia.com
(music interludes and thoughts by yours truly...)

picture titles and artists have been embedded in their respective filenames

surprising musical influence discovery (and credit): Anton Webern (1909)- 5 Movements for String Quartet- #5

In a list

What did you think

Comments

1 - 25 of 25

By me, right now

Adding your comment:
Nangaleema
November 14, 2008

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i am so glad to finally encounter some poetry here that espouces science fiction.
these images are awesome too. thanks for listing the link to the websites they came from. i will definitely check it out. wonderful effort here. - NANGALEEMA
suseann
October 2, 2006
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Deep thoughts spread across the mind and deeper than deep does it go. I enjoyed the thought provoking plitheras you've infused in this piece. And the images are fantastic. The message that occured to this short lived mortal. IS THE RELISH EACH AND EVERY MILISECOND OF EXISTANCE. Because the answers are just beyond the grasp of mankind,as much as in the begining.~~Suseann
Touchof1der
October 2, 2006
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WoW! What a ride!! I didn't think I was ever going to reach the end. This is so... YOU! Naturally I mean that in a good way. Each piece you pen has a signature that is all yours and this is no exception. Always keep the golden pen close at hand.
♥ Touchof1der
Theasp
October 2, 2006
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A vast work of multimedia and I hpe a work in
Well, it was more than ADHD could hancle in one dose, but the otdinary spaceman took away from the effect, either an oblique description or a segment of his own would have worked well with a name yes I read the letter-- returning without the name trivializes him in this vastness, I know but without an aufience all id missed. Maybe a smakk journal entry at the end pf eacg segment. You are a great writer and have no lack of imagination, and I am envious of your muktimedia appyoach, but as a director never ket the set oberwhekm the okay. You might have put the pictures ahainst stark black so they wpuld make the reader a part of all.
Hugs Ann
B Chandler
October 1, 2006
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Although I liked the entirity of this write wayne, it was a tad bit more severe long for me and there were a few spots where the background overtook the write itself. Keep on writing the hoodoo that you do oh so well

Rae
Lance Ryan Williams
October 1, 2006
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Wow, this is freaken awesome. There are a couple notes around my poetry and columns about the universe and some theories I have POORLY contructed about everything about it. Check it out if you would like, it would really help. - Lance Ryan Williams: Help my friend, do not turn your back, need, before the greed. - Lance Ryan Williams: One thousand years of mankind, produces more man...?
capricornpoet
October 1, 2006
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galactic epic journey of man
A journey through time and space , of galactic and universe propportions..a search for eternal by man and his limits..
through dark space and its alienism..A spec of life looking for
meaning in this grand macrocosm, ; and epic as homer would never
devise...Inspiring theme.
Lisa Haslett
October 1, 2006
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Hi this is Lisa K haslett that was beautifully done,I enjoyed every minute of it!It was like a movie,Pretty cool,I liked it very much!Great work!From Lisa K Haslett Raytown Missouri!
voodoo ink
October 1, 2006
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WOW!!!!!
W O W !!!!!!!!
This was the most intensive poem/ story and the art and the background was mmagnificent. I loved the writing, and the storyline....You have done one exquisite work, a true masterpiece.....
Meme Wheeler
October 1, 2006
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Wonderful
This is great! Reminds me of how Great God is to have created such a wonderful universe...mysterious, and beautiful all at the same time. I truly enjoyed the photos, and you put a lot of work inot this poem...you deserve an award!
SexyAngel0418
October 1, 2006
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Wow ap daddy!!! this is really long but really awesome!!! I think you did a great job on the formatting and stuff!!! this is so awesome!!!

Hugs,
Beth
Dragon Tamer
October 1, 2006
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Totally Awesomely Unique!
This is by far the greatest man made creation I have ever seen, heard, and read all at the same time You have far exceeded the WOW factor with this piece.(of course this is just my opinion and may not mean much )I opened all the music links in a different window so they played while I read each part.This is just phenomenal! Keep up the awesome work.
I don't know what I liked most, the music, pictures, or poem, but they all made this what it is.Take care and have a wonderful day!
Don
JamieG
October 1, 2006
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Outstanding
Wow that was refreshingly different, stunning pictures and well thought expertly worded, I truely loved this, and despite its length, it kept me gripped erm that wasnt meant to sound rude. ahh well. Excellent
Abdul T Alishtari
October 1, 2006
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OK, your epic tome
paraselenic in astral scope
transcends with many poems
including infinities beyond hope.

AT
masterblaster
October 1, 2006
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Hi, liked the idea problems were a couple, some of your pics never showed up, and I felt the distance between sentences was a tad long as it was distracting, if you tightened the spaces a bit I feel it would be a lot better, that is just my personal opinion, all the best a good idea, Di
Crazyhead
October 1, 2006
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two thumbs up
wow.. that was long...

other than the rediculus spacing between verses and the pictures that i found more of a distraction than complimentary to the peom, i found it quite enjoyable...

while reading it i could almost picture myself at one of those cliche, jazzy, peotry readings you see in the movies...

very good...

but consider a more simple backround next time...
wbiro
October 1, 2006
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thanks, dp, so this is one of those 'glancers'... I've glanced at my share of 'longies'...! The next step would be to make this so the reader actually reads it the from beginning to end on the first read... but in this case I'd be fighting the subject matter- 'space' tends to make one's mind wander and ponder...! I like you verdict, 'extensive'... lol not necessarily a good thing... well... like Saruman said, "We have work to do..." and I am a bit rusty...
wbiro
October 1, 2006
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thanks, Under STAR, will do...
October 1, 2006
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WOW! I am speechless with this one this was beyond messure and form for poety, I wish I could of heard the music for each picture but my computer isn't powerful enough right now. But the simple visual and poetic aspect of this was just amazing! EXCELLENT WORK!.

Much Love 2ya

UnderSTAR
Edited on Oct 05, 10:19 p.m. because 'to remove spam'.
Lady Altheia
October 1, 2006
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Wow this is great. I love the background. I really enjoyed the poem. I will go stargrazing with you any time. Although at times, it was too much. The pictures distracted from the words and the words were ovcer my head.
wbiro
September 30, 2006
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thank you greatly for the hugs and bites... oh dark poetic wife of the Netherworld...
vampira1665
September 30, 2006
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Wow, I listened to the music for each section and the pictures were just incredible. I am speechless!!! Just WOW!

Hugs and bites, Your Partned in Death
wbiro
September 30, 2006
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no major metaphors in this one, cuz, (and nice to meet you!) everything is straight forward- just presenting the interesting science is enough... thanks for the question- I cleared up that matter a bit- the guy was lucky to escape the black hole alive...
ignoreu
September 30, 2006
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im confused with the medaphoric if any in this [ you are going home to your wife and the black whole you unwilingly wanted to have contect with you did and then wanted to just get out of there]? I do believe you have impressed me with this one.
awsome!!!!!! awsome!!!!!!!!!!!awsome!!!!!! Im starting to see something more for you other then writing for this site
Edited on Sep 30, 11:15 p.m. because ''.
ignoreu
September 30, 2006
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i got that ! nothing goes by my eyes! entering the the whole of life. this is awsome!!!!!!