I’m reading a book on Fermi’s paradox and the author points out that even if we detected intelligent life on a planet somewhere, it wouldn’t solve the paradox—given the enormous scales of space and time involved, “Why are there just two planets harbouring intelligent life?” is as great a mystery as “Why is there just one?” Though, finding one other civilisation might solve the problem if they are more advanced than us (and able to communicate with us)—they might have a better idea of what the astrobiological landscape is like and just be able to explain to us why life isn’t more common or why we can’t detect it. The author quickly adds that this would feel like cheating. Being given the explanation rather than figuring it out ourselves. We don’t really want that, do we. I just love scientists. Imagine being a member of an older and more advanced alien civilisation thinking you’re doing these “human” creatures a great kindness by finally putting their minds at ease and explaining why they couldn’t find more signs of life out there—and having them react like “Oh!!…….. we wanted to find the answer ourselves :( ” I would be very charmed.
Courtney Peppernell, Pillow Thoughts.
It's rueful, the smile I give
When, tired, I lean my head against your chest
Standing stock straight the both of us
In freezing December waters,
Our shoelaces tied in pretty a noose.
Monsoon eats at our hand
Rested on the windowpane
Sometimes even the cold cannot replace the rain.
- pollosky-in-blue
*hints at eternally vague intentions*
The days after school haven't met change
Since times seasons revolved round the sun
You still wait by the corner lane
And I walk up after the bells have rung.
We eat a mouthful of your smoke
And break off bits of corn to make cake
Before we slip into the deep red of the
Bell-cracked wine glass with a rake
On Wednesdays you say, my hair looks nice,
That's for the soap I needed to save till
The next month so we didn't run out of rice.
There is, you know, comfort in unwashed mill
And yet more softness in hands that are soiled
To the nails in lovers' mud and dust.
It is only the shortness of one arm that
Asks to be coupled to twos at first.
Still, your fingers are long enough
To meet both ends and still cup snow
For us to breathe in the iced snuff,
To keep awake among the rafters below
For a few moments more.
We laugh at eachother's smiles
Lie forgetting and run wilder than raccoons
In Philadelphian winters, though miles
Of shadow could never erase these monsoons.
Unless you make it so, these months
Don't hold weddings or coronations
Or those hourly bypasses to coffee haunts,
But as it is, the gaps are fit to ration.
It has always been the dry edge of monsoon
Since times the seasons revolved round the sun.
- pollosky-in-blue
i had an idea for a poem a little while ago but it got lost in life, in time, under a chair, under the blankets, outside a frosty window, beneath a quiet floorboard, under my tongue, inside your eyes
The invisible ropes of twilight cling gently to the new dawn, the gates of heaven are barred. “Exile is sweet”, uttered the wind. “For whom?” “Everybody”, she answers with a smile. “Liberty”, she mused, “what is it…?”Hesitation. Tentative reply. “Freedom to call your spirit your own.” “And how is it to be obtained?” Silence. “ Answer me young woman, how is one to go about purchasing liberty?” Murmurs. “I do not think you can.”Wonder. “Nature”, she suddenly said, “The answer to be found in nature, is it not?” Uncertainty. “Perhaps” “Are fetters to be hailed?”, she presses. Quick answer. “No” Laughter. “Break them then” Perplexed. “You despise your chains, yet revere them. What is it that you want child?”, She teasingly asks, wounding her slender fingers around a flyaway rose. Exclaims in despair, “I don’t know.” Laughter again. “Nobody really does I suppose”, she said, more to herself than to anybody else. “Why do you seek freedom?” “Liberation of the mind and soul is the object of life.” “Very well,” she said, “Liberty you seek and Liberty you shall have”. And thus cast the ascending sun it’s first rays on the mischievous interrogator and the exiled one.
A fond insect hovering around your shoulder. I like Kafka, in case you're wondering.
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