I once heard:
The void of space, in awful screams demands a tribute made
Demands that nothing be its due and nothing for its trade
It speaks of endless void and dark where nothing can be felt
Where nothing loves or hear a cry, where nothing yet has dwelt
Abyss with reaching tentacles beyond galactic rim
Beyond the point where star’s pure light begins to die and dim
What is the earth, what is a man, in shadows of that thing
A magnitude beyond the pale, too horrible to sing
Dreadful whispers on the streams of deepest, darkest fear
Devised by hands more ancient than the heart can bear to hear
Who cares about the dreams of men, the oceans and the seas
What use is building bridges and what use is planting trees
No difference yet has ever man produced working alone
And crumbled every parapet of castles made of stone
What merriment can go beyond the doom of entropy
Except a grim continuance to conquer starry sea
There’s nothing in an infant smile, just chemicals arranged
There’s nothing in the thought of choice, no end has ever changed
Did God above abandon us to heat death’s looming fate
Will ever meaningless and dread be made to go abate?
And I rebelled.
Eternity has had a name before there was a time
That ruler of the universe created it sublime
What might seem big is small to him, not difficult to grasp
In galaxy’s collision and in mayfly’s final gasp
Infinity has never once seen vastness in its eye
And nothingness has never been, despite how some may lie
No inch of space, no blade of grass, no laughter ever heard
Has ever yet been meaningless, nor ever been absurd
Rejoice for even sparrow’s lives are upheld by a hand
Which even now has counted you more than a grain of sand
More than the mountaintops of white, more than the planet’s sphere
More than the pulsar’s blinding light, which so brightly appears
No greater sacrifice was made than what was made for you
And that is greater than the lies, for that is what is true
Written in vague response to:
and: