Poetry

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WHEN THE PHOENIX IS DEAD

The second is the duration of 9192631770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the atom of caesium – 133

Eternity
Is the duration of a kiss,
The fragrance of a smile,
A baptism of bliss,
To be wedded to a while;
To be borne upon tides of music out of time’s range,
Or to ride with the eye across a downland sea.

Eternity
Is ten–to-the-tenth aeons
Held between finger and thumb,
The cloud-like drift of dreams.
Self as spectator of self within
the timeless moment of all moments, made manifest;
Nostalgia murdered;
The transition from alpha to omega,
The ground of all that is in atoms and ages.

It is what endures
When caesium ceases to radiate,
When suns burn low,
Spent worlds spin senselessly,
Life is gutted,
The phoenix is dead.

To die is to pass into life
Where the many selves are fused into the one.
Eternity is the duration of 9192631770 thoughts at the gasp of death.
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14.6.72
Ron Cretchley
www.thinkingpoet.co.uk

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