Quantum Levity

 Dreams can come like this -
My bunker of certainty
  collapsed around me.
In the rubble God’s laughter
became beauty and presence.

  On a river bank
I stood as idea boats passed,
  dismissing each one.
I wait for deeper seeing
and take delight in what’s there.

  The relationship
I call prayer happens as I
  watch the river flow.
You speak to me from silence.
Teach me to come here always.

  Deep called unto deep.
I was going from Aix to Bea
  when Bea called to me.
“We are much more than just things,
and we are forever new.

  “We tell space to curve, 
and space tells us how to move
  in time with the light.
“We are all quantum fields,
singing independently.

  “Dancing together,
we have our being and so
  live and move in time.
“Events create their own time
though time is our forgetting.

  “Time is the entropy
we do not know, and order
  that escapes our grasp.”
Bea came close and asked to bring
the center even closer.

  “Reality is
deep so we will always be
  exploring,” she said.
“Do not be afraid to lose
the control you thought you had.

  “You will learn to live
and move and find your bearings.
  Locate by your love.
“The fullness that you sense is 
because you reflect your God.

  “We are waves upon
waves, open to space and time.
  We are connexions.
“We’re infinities of grace.
Each one a crossing of waves.

  “The experience
you are having this moment
  is the one you need.
“Excuse my staring,” she said,
“I saw Jesus standing there.”

  A new light arranged 
its spectrum of colors in
  hidden symmetries.
Bea said, “Go where the journey
becomes your destination.”

  The dark had structure,
and the lightness had beauty.
  New spaces appeared.
These apeirohedral worlds
were both divided and one.

  Then I found myself
at the gates of paradox,
  Happy to be there.
Where this was I did not know,
but I knew that I heard You.

  As spaces came forth
in connexions with deep time,
  the vision left me.
Law, chance, and necessity
began to assert themselves.

  My ride on a beam 
of light began to slow down. 
  The river came back.
Though I still felt a fullness,
Bea and the vision had gone.

Reflection

Quantum Levity is a poem about space and time or perhaps spaces and time. In the 4th century BC when he wrote about physics, Aristotle called levity the tendency for light things to rise and gravity the tendency of heavy things to fall. Aristotle had a lot of important things to say, and he was correct about many of them. However, about physics he was mostly wrong though we still use gravity to refer things that are serious and levity refer to those that are light and frivilous. 

Quantum gravity is a current theory in physics that has much support but for which there is but a little evidence. Einstein’s General Relativity would be replaced or severly modified if quantum gravity turns out to be true. A conceptual statement of General Relativity is given in verse 5 of the poem. Perhaps in the future, General Relativity will be know as quantum levity. A thought experiment of Einstein also shows up in the poem’s last verse.

When I wrote a draft of this poem about 5 years ago, I wanted it to be not only about space and time but also about light – light in all its aspects, from light and almost frivilous to the waves that will travel through the cosmos forever . Also when I thought about light, I remembered Dante’s Comedia, published in 1221. In the Paradiso, there seemed to be light everywhere. I also stole Dante’s guide Beatrice. She becomes just plain Bea in Quantum Levity. 

The form of the poem is Japanese renga. Each verse has 5 lines and is composed of 2 versets. The first verset has 3 lines of 5 syllables, then 7, and then 5. (This is the same form as haiku.) The second has 2 lines which both have 7 syllables. Poems written this way can have any number of verses. The form developed in medieval Japan among Buddhist poets and was collaborative. Consecutive versets were always written by different poets and each new verset attempted to stay within the theme of the previous one and to break new ground. Japanese renga had from one to thousands of verses, and two to over 100 poets collaborated in poetry festivals. Of course, I am only one poet and not Buddhist or Japanese, but I have tried both to stay within the themes and to break new ground, channeling Aristotle, Dante, Einstein, and others.

I hope you will read the poem again.  Feel free to make comments, or respond to any part of the poem by writing some of your own versets.