The Verse Of The Universe

By Yeshaswini Srihari

It is too big a thing to fully know.

The universe expands beyond me like the sea and the horizon.

Like Aladdin’s carpet up in the sky 

Like the sun rays during sunrise 

It is unfathomable, unconquerable, 

Mysterious to the human mind 

And that is how it is magical. 

Yes, I speak of science and magic in the same verse 

Not pulling a rabbit out of a hat, or a coin from an ear. 

This magic that I speak of 

Is in wonder, in awe

In belief of what exists and what does not. 

You see, 

Science looks to pull things apart, to find the root 

While the poet looks to put them back together 

In ways you could not imagine.

And yet, 

Both seek the beauty we so easily find. 

Both seek to put out the verse of the universe. 

There is magic in the skies 

Which witness colours only the heavens could dream of 

The celestial sphere upon our heads.

In wishing upon shooting stars 

And wondering about the man in the moon 

Never knowing that soon 

It could be our footsteps among those craters 

There is magic in knowing that the moon talks to the sea 

Because of forces like gravity 

And in taking the sea away with you in a shell 

Because they are amplifiers of the sound that resonates 

But there is magic in what it creates.

There is magic in the rain that touches our grounds 

Falling amongst us from the clouds. 

And in deciphering that I can create a rainbow 

From a small prism in my hands with the help of light 

But the magic is in the beauty of how 

Light so white could turn into vivid colours so bright 

And how it carries hope along edges 

There is magic in knowing about the human body 

And knowing that within it rests an indestructible soul

There is magic in knowing that the energy that flows within our veins

Has been across the world,

Has seen the elements 

The sunshine, fire, rain 

And is somehow comes back to us again. 

There is beauty in testing reality

Either through facts or through prose

As the only thing that I can suppose 

Is that it is eventually the beauty we find in science and poetry 

That make up the verse of the universe. 

There are much too many things which appear common in our world

Which appear as though they are nothing but what is on the surface

And this is where science and poetry play together, hand in hand

It is the beauty of looking beyond the surface

It is the beauty of thinking that this cannot possibly be it 

It is the unwillingness to accept an unworthy end.

The act of looking beyond the surface is what makes 

Facts and prose nothing but two sides of the same coin  

It is true, 

That we poets sometimes turn a blind eye to reality 

Placing hope in worlds that do not exist 

And loving things not known to us yet

But of loving things not known to us yet

Science is guilty as well 

They look to a future they can surely see

While we look for ones far from reality 

This could go on for ages. 

It could go on for as long as man has existed. 

But man’s love for the unknown, 

The yet to come, 

The exciting maybe, 

Is what ties science and prose together. 

And so,

In this quest to explain myself better 

To explain this love of being in awe 

I hope to have brought to your thoughts, to your mind 

The getting along of two subjects of a kind

One looking beyond the truth, slightly into fantasy 

And the other looking beyond the truth, slightly into reality 

Each just trying to find beauty 

Enough to contribute

To the verse of the universe.

By Yeshaswini Srihari