Palace Of Water Poem by Denis Mair

Palace Of Water

Rating: 5.0


After making their separate roundabout journeys through the Primordium, some of the wise ones meet in the Palace of Water. This is a concourse where the ancient intelligences like to hold peripatetic gatherings as they pass through. The vaulted spaces stir with sounds of purling rapids, with the boom of surf, with sighs of rain on foliage, with declamations of streams in deep ravines. The walls cast wavering spangles across the strollers who come here to reflect on their ongoing projects.

If we picture the universe as a vast quantum matrix, then these old intelligences have been at work for a long time, serving as nodes of far-reaching connectivity...way down there in the foam of vacuity, always dreaming up properties of matter, condensing their far-flung songlines and discussing what adjustments of laws would pave the way for coherent forms...what mesh of material properties would allow such forms to embark on an evolutionary course?

Those wise ones envisioned eons when time would bear fruit in the poignant experiences of transient beings, and those beautiful experiences would always point toward further fruitions.

Fluidity would be needed for these fruitions, so that awareness of time's passing could double back and sense its own transience, until layers of recursion would build up like petals of a rose.

The old intelligences harkened back to the fluidity of dense early plasmas and the fusion-flux at the heart of stars. They also harken forward to the cascade of transformations towards which time is hastening. In their vision for the middle world of transient beings, they decided that a fluid nexus would make the best life medium. Their idea of water became an edifice where they could meet to discuss the properties of matter across intersecting realms...a convenient site from which to survey the landscapes of possibility space.

'We must let the tender ones toughen their softness against metal, so they can lift themselves and extend their powers. The water's flow will bring all their evolutionary potentials into play...it will help them to carry their burdens. Once metal's sharpness has been worn down, those tender ones can re-manifest their softness in a new way.'

The wise ones played through all the scenarios in their imaginative meditations, dreaming up ways to contain and harness an excess of fire. They kept coming back to water as the hub where matter's evolutionary tricks could interlock in a living fabric. Water delivers nutrients; water suspends salts; water repels lipids so they can line up in membranes; water quivers and shifts in gels; water provides an electrolytic balance as a background state, so nerve impulses can move along a membrane. Within the plasm of a cell, water's constant tiny vibrations help to nudge components into their sockets on the surface of an enzyme, enabling those components to join into a protein chain. Water is a fundamental link in the respiratory and photosynthetic cycles of cells. Water is incorporated in carbon compunds to make structural molecules for cells.

Water self-adheres so it can be drawn up thru narrow tubules of plants; water can be pushed with little friction through capillaries of animals. Water in liquid form conducts heat; water in solid form floats to the surface of a lake and insulates the water below, to keep it from freezing.

On a planetary level, water moves in cycles thru the atmosphere. It provides big reservoirs where living things can thrive; it serves as a heat sink and evaporative cooler that helps to stabilize the planet's temperature. Water delivers itself to sedentary life forms on land. The land could not even exist if water did not enter into silicates and calcium carbonates to make stone. On top of that, water leaches out trace elements from upthrust rock and brings them down to replenish the flatlands, to be absorbed into the bodies of living things.

So it was fitting that the old intelligences chose water as life's vehicle. Around water's properties, the formative loops of life-making processes are joined in an ever-flowing knot. Even if water flows outside of a living body, it is not reducible to unliving and unloving stuff. It always belongs to the sacred dispensation that makes a cradle for life. Even when it flows outside the bodies of those tender, transient beings, it is not inert...it is making a long detour to come back within them. So in view of its disposition mesh with life's multi-level needs, it is always a key part of life's story. By treating it as the flowing core of life, those tender babes will make a leap of intuition, to enter the GREATER CIRCULATION and occupy the full body of cosmic man on Earth.
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Saturday, April 27, 2019
Topic(s) of this poem: creation,evolution,water
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
I have been kicking around these ideas for a long time, but until recently they were still shapeless. The immediate stimulus for writing this was a poem titled WATER by Joan Xie. You can see it on PoemHunter. (Joan is a poet and lawyer in New York City) . I used to talk about science and philosophy with my brother Dave, who worked as a chemist for the Columbus City Water Department. Those discussions planted the seed for my ponderings on water's role in nature.After reading Michael Denton's book THE DESTINY OF NATURE, I began to think about the telos implied in the properties of natural substances.I also was inspired by an essay on " the cosmic body of humankind" by Huang Xiang, a poet and painter who lives in New York City.The cosmological role of water is mentioned in the third and fourth chapters of BRHAD ARANYAKA UPANISHAD: " Water is the weft on which all things are woven." ..........Thanks to Wang Hao for translating this into Chinese: 水之宫 梅丹理 那些古老的智能各自在鸿蒙之境中环游一圈之后,有一部分会在水宫中相会。这是一座人来人往的大厅,从中穿过的老者像亚里士多德的门徒那样在此巡游攀谈。穹顶高耸的空间里回荡着激流涌泄的响声,巨浪的轰鸣,雨水在树叶上的叹息,深谷溪流的激昂陈词。当漫步者前来思索他们正在实施的计划,墙壁将摇曳的光点撒遍他们全身。 如果把宇宙假想为一座庞大的量子矩阵,那么这些古老的智能早已在其中效劳,甘愿担当汇集迢远关联的一个个节点……遥处太虚沤沫的深井,总是在梦中设想着物质的属性,时常将他们播向四周的歌曲版图加以浓缩,并讨论自然规律的哪些调整将为固定的形体铺平道路……物质属性之间的哪些契合将允许这类形体走上一条演化的道路?那些智者曾在他们的愿景中描绘一个久远的未来时代,希望到那时候熟透的光阴在转瞬即逝的众生心中能结出撩人感人撼人的体验以作为果实,而那些美妙的果实却总是指向未来更多的果实。这些果实的酝酿需要流动性,于是对时间流逝的感知就可能对折回来感受自己的转瞬即逝,直到反向自身的感知层层呈现,一片片地累积如玫瑰花瓣。 古老的智能遥想早期致密等离子体的流动性和恒星中心的熔浆,同时遥望时间匆匆赶向的一泄如注的通盘变革。当他们为短暂的生命体观想出中间世界,他们得出的结论是:流动的关联纽带将是最佳的生命介质。他们对水的构想变成了一座大厦,以供他们讨论跨越各个相交领域的物质属性……那是一个方便的场所,便于以此为起点去探析物类潜存的景观。 " 我们必须让柔嫩者借金属之力将自己的柔软变得坚实,这样它们才能提升自己,拓展自己的力量。水的流动将使他们所有的演化潜能发挥出来……并且帮助它们负重前行。一旦金属的锐利被磨蚀,那些柔嫩者就能以新的方式再度展现其柔软。" 这些智者在意象驰骋的冥想中历遍所有场景,幻想出种种方法来掌控和利用过多的火。他们一次次想到水,因为水是一个枢纽,让物质进化的种种机巧得以在此形成鲜活的交叉联结。水输送营养,水悬浮盐分;水推开脂质使它们排列成行, 形成薄膜;水以凝胶的形态震颤、迁移,而且水能实现电解质的平衡……以此作为一种背景状态,使脉冲沿薄膜传导向前。水在细胞质中持续发出微微的震颤,把各种成分拨进酶表面的凹槽之中,让它们牵成一条条蛋白质链。水是细胞呼吸与光合循环的基础环节。水与碳化合物结合,形成细胞的结构分子。 水自我粘连,所以能够顺着植物纤细的管茎抽上去,能够从容泵入动物的毛细血管而没有丝毫摩擦。液态水传导热量,固态水漂浮于湖的表面,为下面的水隔温,让它免于冻结。 在行星层面上,水在大气中循环流动。水聚成一座座巨大的水库,让各种生物兴盛繁衍;而每一座水库就是一个巨大保温器,也是一个蒸发性冷却器,让地球的温度保持稳定。水将自己输送给陆地上定栖不动的生命体。水如果不进入硅酸盐和碳酸钙中形成石头,陆地甚至都不可能存在。更要紧的是,水从隆起的岩石中滤出生命所需的微量元素,用于补给下面的平地,并让生物将其吸收到体内。 所以说,古老的智能纷纷把水选作生命的载体,真是极为适宜。以水的特性为核心,那些形成生命的种种过程能够环环相扣,彼此连成一个流动不息的结。即便水在一个生命体之外流动,也不能被降格为没有生命、没有爱心的东西。在构成生命摇篮的宏伟布局中,水始终占据一席。即使是流动于那些柔嫩的众生的体外,水也并不怠惰……而是沿着漫长迂回的道路返回它们体内。因此,由于水的性格与生命多个层次的需求相契合,它永远是生命故事的关键。……将水作为生命之流的核心,那些柔嫩的婴儿将实现直觉的飞跃,进入那个大循环,并最终体证地球上宇宙人体的整个身躯。王浩、梅丹理 译
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Laurie Van Der Hart 30 April 2019

Fascinating thoughts, Denis. Water is certainly an integral part of life’s story. I have also been thinking about that recently, but your imagination operates on a higher plane to mine, I think! Yes, certainly your awe for creation comes through. For my part, I feel awe for the choreographer, not just the ballet; for the composer, not just the music. Chance forces coming together intelligently to make something as awesome as water just doesn’t seem logical to me. But thank you for sharing.

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Denis Mair 12 May 2019

I really like what you said about water in your message of May 1: I SEE WHERE YOU'RE COMING FROM. YES, THERE IS DEFINITELY SOMETHING WONDROUS ABOUT WATER. IT'S NOT JUST REDUCIBLE TO ITS COMPONENTS.... LIKE A PAINTING CONTINUES TO TESTIFY TO THE ARTIST AND IS NOT JUST A COMBINATION OF PAINT COLORS.

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Madathil Rajendran Nair 29 April 2019

But, I often suspect that we are perhaps constricting ourselves in taking it for granted that life is exclusively water-bound. In a poem of mine somewhere I remember to have wondered if there would be beings elsewhere in the universe taking acid baths and raising acid drinks of cheers. Thanks for the profound poem. (10)

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S.zaynab Kamoonpuri 07 May 2019

If you feel the need for intelligences behind it all then I believe you are on the right track nearer to the truth than atheism. I do like to remember that eminent scientist Einstein said that, ' God does not play dice with the universe" , so I believe he stated that after scientific observation, thus there was no experimentation. The creator calculated everything accurately and precisely to create the universe and life. Kudos for your brilliance here poet.

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Denis Mair 12 May 2019

Indeed, I think that some kind of calculation must have been involved in the Creation. I think that intelligence must have been (and still is) at work in structuring the natural order. Otherwise, how could the natural order have provided conditions allowing our kind of intelligence to arise?

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Hans Vr 04 June 2019

As the poem evolves it becomes an ode to the fabulous properties of water. The poetic and spiritual elements woven into it make it a true work of art. Excellent.

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Me Poet Yeps Poet 01 June 2019

GOOD ONE FOR SPIRITUALISTS THEY WILL LIKE IT THANKS FOR D INVITE DO READ MY MOMS SMILES AND FEW OTHERS GOOD ONES THANKS FOR THE INVITE THE ONLY WAY TO ACK IS BY READING THEIR NO ONE RETURNS TO URS A SECOND TIME TOO MANY POETS IN Q U R JUST SUCH A ONE ME TOO

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valsa george 01 June 2019

'Their idea of water became an edifice where they could meet to discuss the properties of matter across intersecting realms...a convenient site from which to survey the landscapes of possibility space.' What a brilliant thought! This fluid nexus is indeed the cradle of life! We all know that it was in water that the first life forms ever originated! I am really lost in the plethora of ideas in this treatise on water!

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valsa george 01 June 2019

This is a pool of scientific knowledge augmented by poetic imagination! I wonder at the profundity of ideas you have shared in this amazing write! I

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Mahtab Bangalee 29 May 2019

thoughtful, brilliant, intelligent and experimental writings it's great philosophical and scientific insightful writings on the creation and its eternity by using WATER and PALACE multi-talent combination the old intelligence with the palace of water and our present discovering knowledge change is a seed of revolution and it comes on the chariot of evolution; the beginning of the creation is an obscuring egg of our inquisitive mind and the end is too ..........

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