Atoms - Poem

 

I may be wrong but from what I understand no matter how hard we try to differentiate among ourselves (and look down on people who are different from us), we are all made up of the same basic kinds of atoms......and they really get recycled in every sense of the word......they are virtually indestructible and it is thought that the atoms we are made up of passed through several stars, not to mention countless people, animals and plants before miraculously combining to make each of us, I wrote this poem with this in mind.

Years came and years went

We were born again

But though many eons passed away

We couldn't comprehend

Until one day the Sun burnt out

And we became stardust

When the dust collided

Another world was born

This world formed an ocean

And the ocean formed a soup

From this primordial soup of life

Came a terrible coup

We kept on quarreling every day

Till there was little left

It never dawned on us

We were all just atoms at best

Shadow shadow darkest shadow - Poem

 

When bad times come remember even your shadow might disappear, but then the Sun will shine and........(Poem by me)

Shadow Shadow darkest shadow 
Will you too leave me
When the meaningless reeds on the other river bank move with the wind
Will you still believe me

Shadow Shadow my own shadow
Will they even sway you
If in anger they bend the truth
Will you then lie too

Shadow Shadow my best friend
If the wind blows slow
And wicked men use oars to reach me
Will you join them too

Shadow Shadow darkest shadow
If darkness helps your goals
And the Sun disappears for me
Will you help them end my Soul

Shadow Shadow my very own Shadow
If you ever lose your Soul
In the darkest hour that comes before dawn
Remember the Sun will still unite us.

Every Day - Poem

 

On the dark days of September

And other days in November

I still thought of better days soon

That will come to me in June

But when old December came

I thought I’ll go insane

For dark dreary days

Had come for me to stay

But then January first was here

I lost all fear

For I just decided to be happy

Every day of every month

The Lightning Machine

 

I wrote the following short story some years ago.

My paternal uncle, was once a world-famous scientist and inventor, but now nobody took him seriously. For all his brilliance if two words could be used to describe him they would be Extremely Eccentric. He had the strange habit of suddenly asking a physics question in the middle of a normal conversation and you were liable to be scolded if you did not give a satisfactory answer. For this reason some people including many of his former colleagues avoided him. Some said it was old age encroaching, some said it was an illness of the mind.

But apart from this eccentricity he was a kind and friendly man and as much as I avoided him I could not help feeling guilty so one day I went and met him. "Oh there you are at last, you numbskull, you have been avoiding me for one month" said he. "I had my exams, but it was all in vain for they asked questions from just the part of the syllabus that I avoided" said I. "Serves you right, now tell me how the Universe was created" said he. "Well according to the Big Bang theory it all started as an infinitely small primeval atom, and it expanded to form the stars, planets, galaxies and everything else in the universe. But what the theory does not explain is how the primeval atom came to be in the first place and what was there before that" said I

"That’s right, it doesn't explain it, but I found the answer for that too, though it is a secret and I don't want to tell it to you right now. But I have something interesting to show you look out of the window" said he. Outside was an enormous metal tower, and a field of what looked like huge batteries. "The world is facing an energy crisis, economies have fallen because of it and it is only going to get worse, but I solved that problem through this invention. Look what happens when I press this switch" said he. As he pressed the switch there was a crackling sound and within minutes dark clouds appeared over the tower. Soon it turned into a terrible thunderstorm. "You see Thomas this tower has a charge that attracts lightning, which leads to a chain reaction that causes thunderstorms" said he. Soon lightning discharged in the tower almost continuously making an ear splitting noise. "Cant you see what's happening Thomas, I am converting the static charge in the lightning into chemical energy in the field batteries which is then used to make an electric current that could be used by people” said he.

Two weeks later I returned and to my utter dismay he asked the same question, but this time I was prepared ......Well uncle, according to scientists when matter and anti-matter collide it leads to nothingness. So somewhere in the indeterminate past this process was somehow reversed and from nothingness we had matter and anti-matter, or in other words the universe formed from nothing. At this he laughed and said......just as I always suspected you are not overly bright.....but then we all have to be the way we are made. 

But at least tell me what you know of the Theory of Relativity. 

.......Well uncle according to it time is relative and not absolute. The faster you move the slower time passes for you. As you approach the speed of light Time stops” said I. “But what has the speed of light to do with time, you pinhead” said he. “I do not know though I have often wondered” said I. “No you idiot, Light and other electromagnetic waves move at the speed of light and even in a stationery object the small particles that make it move at the speed of light. But when the whole object moves the need to move is compensated so the small particles that make up the object move correspondingly slower making it look like time moves slower for it. But when I tell this theory to other scientists they call me a nut” said he.

“But uncle don’t worry about it, for your lightning machine will make you famous, nobody ever figured out the way to make electricity from lightning,” said I. My uncle’s face darkened as I said this and he said “That’s where the problem is Thomas, I can’t present my invention to the world for it would be misused. Imagine what a superpower could do if it got its hand on my invention. It could even be used as a weapon. I don't want my invention to be used to kill people, So I decided to destroy it, in fact I already have” said he. My uncle died two months later, I think of a broken heart because he had to destroy his precious invention. I do not know if his theory of the universe was correct but I know that he was the greatest scientist nobody ever talked about.

Paddy Fields Forever - Poem

Merry shall be the fields of Lanka
Worked once by ancient hands
Cows and buffaloes still tell stories
Their ancestors ploughed for the motherland 

A richer soil has never been worked on
To plant even richer seeds
Ancient farmers still tell stories
Though dead for centuries

In its mountains in its valleys
Once grew many valiant trees
But nothing could ever try to conquer 
The calm but majestic paddy fields 

A great king once told the people
Not a drop will flow to the sea
Without first being used to water
The motherlands green paddy fields 

Ancient Kings still shout out loudly
Louder than some want to hear
The happiest people in the world were and are
Those who work in paddy fields.

The Other Side of Science - Poem

 

Science that filled the moon with men

Built planes rockets and flaming jets

Split the atom to countless shreds

Put empty dreams on bad men's heads

Could not duplicate a simple leaf

Or solace a man filled with grief

Clouds that filled the earth with rain

Filled wells rivers and mighty lakes

Was it the work of earthly heads

Or God's hand overhead

Science may harness a million powers

Make greedy men its earnest lovers

Make a few to rule many

Desperate people without any money

But can they bend the hands of Time

That neither you, I nor them can bind

No my friends they just can’t

All of us have to reach the Past

Once the Ocean Told Me - Poem

 

Once the ocean told me

One of its secrets

Of a moon that shone full

And old idiots awoken

Out of the darkness

Of a black ship that sailed

Of shrieking old men

Who came from a grave

A celestial bird beckoned me

To a land of gold

But the ocean echoed

It was a land of unattained hopes

The lure of money

The threat of force

But all I want is

My conscience and soul

But more wonderful than

The gold of crumbling old men

Or the words of decaying law books

Are the secret laws of the ocean

The un-written laws of good and evil

The un-written laws of right and wrong

Adrian Hill

 

The best Art book I have ever read, was a relatively small book as art books go by British artist, Adrian Hill. How so many good ideas could be packed into such a small book is amazing. This book doesn’t tell you everything you need to know, but the drawings, in particular, are so “clever”, that it inspires you to take up drawing.

Adrian Keith Graham Hill (1895-1977), enlisted in the Army at the start of World War One, where due to his artistic abilities he was assigned to the Scouting and Sniping section. He had to sketch the enemy in front of allied trenches, in no man's land. Later Hill recalled such a typical patrol as follows:

“I advanced in short rushes, mostly on my hands and knees, with a sketching kit dangling around my neck. As I slowly approached, the wood gradually took a more definite shape, and as I crept nearer I saw that what was hidden from my own line, now revealed itself as a cunningly contrived observation post in one of the battered trees.”

In 1938 while recovering from tuberculosis at a sanatorium, he found that drawing nearby objects from his hospital bed greatly aided in his recovery. This led to Occupational Therapy being introduced in Hospitals, and Hill was invited to teach drawing and painting to injured soldiers and later civilian patients. Hill believed that Art helped divert patients and relieved their mental distress. He also believed that Art appreciation aided recovery and this led to a picture lending scheme (of famous artists' work). Hill himself along with other artists talked to patients about artworks. Hill coined the term (Art Therapy), and published his work in his 1942 book, Art Versus Illness. Hill published many books about drawing and painting and was the first artist commissioned by the Imperial War Museum in 1917.

In his art book: "THE BEGINNER'S BOOK OF OIL PAINTING" he had drawn a black and white drawing, of a 1950's English landscape I think. These drawings inspired me to such an extent that I turned it into a watercolor painting: Both the original drawing and my painting are given below. I only wish I had used more green for the trees and foliage.

Watercolour painting by me

 

Wassily Kandinsky

 

Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (1866-1944), was a Russian painter widely credited as the pioneer of abstract art. He felt that art should have no recognizable objects or forms, but rather should destroy reality in order to arrive at the underlying truth of existence. He called his spiritual desire for art “inner necessity”. Kandinsky studied law and economics at the University of Moscow, and was offered a professorship at the University of Dorpat, but he abandoned his career in 1896 at the age of 30, and went to Munich to study art. But before leaving Moscow, he saw an exhibit of paintings by Monet. It had a profound effect on him, and may have influenced his later venture into abstract art.

In 1896 Kandinsky settled in Munich, studying art at the Academy of Fine Arts. But he returned to Moscow in 1914. After the Russian Revolution he seemed to have been involved with Russian Marxist revolutionary Anotoly Lunacharsky, becoming an insider in the cultural administration. However because “his spiritual outlook was different to the argumentative materialism of Soviet society” he returned to Germany in 1920. There he taught art at the Bauhaus School until Hitler closed it down in 1933. He then moved to France producing some of his most prominent work until his death a few days before his 78th birthday.

Wassily Kandinsky was an early champion of abstract painting and believed that abstract art could be used to express the “inner life” of the artist. His favorite color was blue, and he believed that the circle was the most peaceful shape and represents the human soul.

Sir Humphry Davy

 

 

Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829) was a British Chemist. Davy discovered the elements potassium and sodium (1807), and barium and calcium (1808). These discoveries resulted from his researches in electro-chemistry. He was the first to isolate magnesium and strontium (1808) independently of the French chemist Gay-Lussac and Thenard. His miner’s safety lamp (1815) was a major contribution to industrial safety. Although two other men claimed this invention, Davy is generally given the credit.

Davy was born in Cornwall. As an apprentice to an apothecary and surgeon, he became interested in chemistry. In 1799 as an assistant in the Pneumatic Institution of Bristol, he made important discoveries of the properties of nitrous oxide. This accomplishment won him an appointment, at 23, as professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, London.

Davy’s talent for storytelling, combined with his brilliant scientific record, made him one of the most popular lecturers of his day. Although Britain and France were enemies at this time, Davy was awarded the Napoleon Prize of the French Institute in 1808. He was knighted in 1812 and was made a baronet in 1818. He became president of the Royal Society in 1820.

As a poet, over one hundred and sixty manuscript poems were written by Davy, the majority of which are found in his personal notebooks. Most of his written poems were not published, and he chose instead to share a few of them with his friends. Eight of his known poems were published. His poems reflected his views on both his career and also his perception of certain aspects of human life. He wrote on human endeavors and aspects of life like death, metaphysics, geology, natural theology and chemistry.