In the beginning, there was just gas
hydrogen drifting in nebulous clouds
assuming fantastic shapes
within which gravity began to
group the atoms into clumps
flocculating into formless blobs
that swarm and meld together
until the weakest of fundamental forces
is magnified by unimaginable volumes
temperature rising with such pressure
that eventually combustion spontaneously
ignites the first generation of stars
A star is a balancing act
between the explosive force of the burn
versus the constant collapsing
pull of gravity but fire consumes
the star and gravity always wins
and the star is blown to bits
to dust in fact – stardust brings
new elements to the feast for
the greedy, next generation
growing in the nursery of new nebulae
The new stars have more complex
deaths with a series of alternating
explosions and collapses each
one concentrating and crushing
new elements into existence
before blasting them into ever
more varied stardust which will
one day make the flesh and bones
of a big-brained hominid
who will gaze back through
generations of galaxies let alone
stars – back towards where it all began…
© Andrew Wilson, 2024
Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Melissa Lemay in Poetics invites us to write a poem on the subject – Metamorphosis of Sorts…
A great choice for transformation, Andrew. All we are is Dust in the Wind!
‘We are stardust, we are golden…’ I love this poem, Andrew, and it’s progression from gas in nebulous clouds to the ‘clumps flocculating into formless blobs that swarm and meld together’, the ‘first generation of stars’, and the phrase ‘a star is a balancing act’. Yes! My grandson is a huge fan of nebulae; he will turn seven tomorrow and I have sent him various space related things, including a nebula poster and a t-shirt that reads ‘I need more space’. On Saturday he will celebrate with some friends at the Winchester Space Museum.
Thanks Dwight – it’s fascinating to think that we could not have existed in the early universe since the elements that make us did not exist at that point – Stardust indeed…
Thanks, Kim – I didn’t read the prompt carefully enough so it’s not from the first person POV but I was pleased with it. Glad to hear of your grandson’s enthusiasm!
The beginning—an unfathomable metamorphosis. Through to the metamorphosis of time.
Yes – and a perspective on our own place in the universe…
The balance between the intense burn and the forces of gravity (which will eventually lead to collapse) much like every human eventually will bend and collopse to the force of gravity.
I love the smell of cosmic forces in the morning…
What a great response to the prompt, Andrew! I especially love your ending!
Yvette M Calleiro 🙂
http://yvettemcalleiro.blogspot.com
Thanks Yvette – the minuteness of our place in the scheme of things and yet the magnitude of the view we have reached only makes the brevity of our lives all the more poignant, i think…
If only science was taught through poetry in school, I would excelled in it. I love this, Andrew. How cyclical life on this universe is and our place in it so beautifully put.
Yes, Punam! There are quite a few songs I know of but this is my favourite https://youtu.be/B4N3rVa2ePM
I love this, Andrew–the birth of stars, their transformation, and the way we could not exist without them.
“A star is a balancing act
between the explosive force of the burn
versus the constant collapsing
pull of gravity “
Thanks Merril, watching all those documentaries didn’t go amiss but tempered by poesie…
And here we are. We’ll never be able to clean up the mess until we become the mess as star dust.
Indeed, Nolcha, indeed…
Wow! Just dust in the wind. Wonderful poem, Andrew.