Nobody Knows

(Picture Credit - Antifan-Real)

Will We live forever?

Nobody knows.

Can we conquer cancer.

Is there life after death.

Will our Universe fade away at the last,

Or will it be reborn.

Will it expand for ever,

Or wax and wane.

Will we ever find the smallest thing,

Or the largest.

Could we really travel through time,

Even to the next star.

Is there a God,

Or race of Gods.

Is this reality

Or just

A computer simulation.

Is there a Heaven

Or Hell,

Or are we reincarnated

To live endless lives.

Can we live forever in flesh

Or just in spirit.

Are there really ghosts

And poltergeists.

What is The Purpose of all this?

Why do we exist?

Yes, why are we here?

Why?

Nobody knows.

Paul Butters

© Paul Butters, 27\10\2012 in Yorkshire.

Dream On

(Picture Credit - Tighe)

Dream on, my friend,

Like me.

Of a future Heaven on Earth,

Or even just a Heaven.

Peace to all Men,

And Women.

Nor more starvation,

Disease

Or Death.

A Paradise in full bloom.

Endless forest, savannas and parklands

Ringed by towering mounts.

Habitats for countless species:

Humanity united with Mother Nature.

Trivial pleasures too.

Leeds United World Champions.

British wins at Wimbledon.

Another World Cup win.

Girls Aloud joining me,

For a fish and chip tea.

More medals in Rio,

Than we got in twenty twelve.

Crank up that warp drive,

Or better still,

Open up that Uniscape

So we can go

Into a parallel universe

Of our choice.

A realm where fiction becomes fact.

Where Captain Kirk is real

And Shatner just a character

On TV.

Where Telletubbies really watch us,

And Father Christmas truly shows his face.

Golden pavements are mere trifles,

And God gives us his grace.

We have to keep on dreaming.

Our hopes must never die.

Just simply keep on dreaming,

No need to reason why.

Paul Butters

© Paul Butters 27\10\2012 (2) in Yorkshire.

Mirror

(Picture Credit: frenchantiquestexas; source Google Images)

Mirror, mirror shining bright,

Bathe me in your silver light.

Who’s the fairest of them all?

Only you can make that call.

You’re the one who shows the truth,

Better than the cleverest sleuth.

You might be a TV screen

Showing things just best unseen.

A doorway into Wonderland

Down routes without you, all unscanned.

A gateway into unknown realms:

I picture countless lofty elms.

Just walk right through that shimmering screen,

To places where you've never been.

Really, though, it’s but a reflection.

I thank you for that kind correction.

There is no monster lurking there,

No need for panic, sweat or prayer.

It’s just a mirror after all,

A pane of glass that can enthral.

The truth, I trust, is all we see,

An image that’s completely free.

Paul Butters

Open Your Mind

(Photo by NASA)

Please come with me

Beyond the beyond.

Look down on space and time.

See everything:

An Odyssey of the mind.

Where all has happened:

Big Bang,

Expanding Universe,

Eden, Fall and technologisation.

Watch history repeat, again and again

Like Groundhog Day,

On countless worlds.

Just look at this,

All of it,

And feel and smell and hear.

Then tell us where we are.

Paul Butters

Dogs

(Max and Promise with Mum by Me)

Those eyes so sad

Watch your tail wag

Our Collie Labrador.

My loyal friend,

Love can never end:

We Love you more and more.

You have a mate,

A constant date,

She rolls all over the floor.

A lab and beagle partnership,

Bonnie and Clyde I quip:

Max and Promise at the door.

I take them for long walks,

And Max, he almost talks,

They know the score.

They’re on their way,

They’re here to stay,

They’ll never bore.

Promise prances,

And Max dances

All over that floor.

They lick my face,

Tongue-curled embrace:

That’s just what dogs are for.

Paul Butters

Aire Valley

(Please scroll down......) 

(Pictures of Aire Valley from myself)

Up here amongst the Dales

There is a magic everywhere.

These rolling hills, all draped in mist

Seduce my senses with their rustic charm.

From high above: my sister’s loft,

Oh what a view!

The valley of The Aire: just set

Before me like an open map.

These towns and villages, all pasted on those undulating hills.

Above, the ever changing clouds right now are drifting, aimlessly along.

A tree-dot landscape smothered by those clinging mists.

The clouds roll on, imperiously

Lording over everything:

A land all shrouded in mystery.

Paul Butters

(3\10\2012 - Thank You Everyone - 800 Views for this blog now. 531 are for my "Mirror Mirror" post. Thanks again).

(If you want to see my poem, "Mirror, Mirror" then please keep scrolling down).

Clouds

The clouds play out their dramas,

As they scurry across the sky.

All shapes and sizes,

Even faces,

In my mind’s eye.

They hug the hills with mist sometimes,

Or blend into golden, blood-red, blue tinged

Sunsets.

Cloud castles,

Ocean liners on a pure glass sea.

An endless variety of forms,

From dull featureless grey

To swirling poetry.

Different every day.

Paul Butters

(Thanks for looking, dear reader. Do feel free to comment and scroll down for more poems. Pop back any-time you feel like a read. Remember, poetry is to be sipped and savoured, not gulped down. There are 18 more poems below this one).

Mortality

(Gary Speed RIP)

It starts with Death:

Your Life.

A foetus springs to being,

Who knows when?

From Nothing,

To sentience

In a flash.

Consciousness conceived

Then Born.

We know, of course,

It ends in death too.

Paul Butters

Mother Nature

(Picture Credit - Crystalline Turquoise Lake, Jiuzhaigou National Park, China, by Korubu - Alexandre Martins - on Flickr) 

Mother Nature rules the World,

And probably

The whole Universe.

Our Earth, a planet blue,

Just teems with Life.

Even deep beneath the ocean,

Amongst those geysers,

Oh so Hot,

You will find Life.

Lakes filled with acid,

Bone –dry deserts (look underground),

Solid sheets of ice:

They all are home-sweet-home

To bacteria

Or Viruses,

At the very least.

We bomb those cities to piles of rubble,

And poison the Earth with God knows what,

Yet always, given time,

Life will re-assert itself:

That sprig of couch-grass,

Those flowers.

Mother Nature never does give in.

Life springs eternal.

From amoeba to a dancing dolphin.

So utterly determined

To survive.

Clinging to existence

Like a limpet on a rock.

Invincible in Her tenacity.

Paul Butters

Cyberspace

(Photo Credit - Compute Scotland)

(Picture Source: 

http://www.computescotland.com/cyberspace-war-moves-up-alongside-conventional-battlefields-2397.php )

Where are you Paul?

I’m in Cyberspace Mum.

My Pentium processor has broadbanded me

Into this wondrous realm.

A pixel powered virtual landscape

Peopled by avatars

Speaking Internet Slang.

FFS, WTF are you talking about?

She asks.

In so many words.

I LMAO and ROFL at her incredulity.

It’s full of danger, that Internet, says Mum.

That’s true.

It’s full of paedophiles,

Spammers and trolls.

Hackers.

Chat-rooms and forums

Plagued by flame-wars

And spam enough to fill a trillion tins.

Sites full of viruses, Trojans, malware and spyware.

Cyber-bullies and loons abound.

But I just Love it.

A Heroin addiction

Needing every fix.

A realm indeed of quantum singularities,

And imploding nebulae.

Paul Butters

(A bit risky this one. Not quite "Moon in June" eh?)

Mirror, Mirror

(German Mirror - Picture Credit - Google Images: frenchantiquestexas dot com)

Does a mirror show the truth?

I could be a girl for all I know,

Or look like one at least.

Might be so ugly,

Or very handsome.

A monster

Or Tom Cruise.

That mirror

Like a television

May have a life

Of its own.

So if that glare

Should ever be switched off

(For any reason)

Then my real image

May resurface:

A scabby, gargoyle horror

Mutated

From atomic war.

Or, some radiant beauty,

Freed from the mirror’s

Shining cell.

Mirrors!

Paul Butters

(This poem has had 122 Views on "Hello Poetry", making it my 5th most popular poem there. Do feel free to give feedback)

(1\10 - 363 Views here now after a sudden surge. Way above all my other poems here. Keyword "Mirror". Is it the picture?)

(2\10 - 462 Views now! Thank You)

Anyone looking for THIS (?):  "Mirror" - song by Lil Wayne featuring Bruno Mars -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZLUa8JUR18

Or -      http://www.mirror.co.uk/ (major newspaper)

Or -      http://www.ukmirrorsailing.com/ ("Mirror Dinghy" Championships)

Or -      http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072443/ ("Mirror" - 1975 film)

Or -       http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1667353/ ("Mirror, Mirror...Snow White" 2012 film)

Or you might want to buy a mirror from Houston, Texas:

http://wip.frenchantiquestexas.com/category/furnishings/mirrors/

Here are some of Lil Wayne's lyrics:

"Uh, With everything happening today

You don't know whether you're coming or going

But you think that you're on your way

Life lined up on the mirror, don't blow it

 (Whoo!) Look at me when I'm talking to you

You lookin' at me, but I'm lookin' through you

I see the blood in your eyes

I see the love in disguise

I see the pain hidden in your pride

I see you're not satisfied

And I don't see nobody else

I see myself

I'm lookin' at the (Chorus - Bruno Mars) Mirror on the wall

Here we are again (yeah)

Through my rise and fall (uh)

You've been my only friend (yeah)

You told me that they can understand the man I am

So why are we here

Talking to each other again?

I see the truth in your lies

I see nobody by your side

But I'm with you when you're all alone

And you correct me when I'm lookin' wrong

I see the guilt beneath the shame

I see your soul through your window pane

I see the scars that remain

I see Wayne

I'm looking at the Mirror on the wall..."

(Variation on the theme I reckon)

(3\10) BTW - Thanks everyone - 531 Views of this post out of 800 for the whole blog.

13\5\2013: I see "Mirror,Mirror" was also the title of an original Star Trek episode about an alternate universe in which they are most brutal. In fact there are many websites with the same name, about beauty treatments etc. A very popular "brand name" indeed.

24\5\14 - 7148 Views. Still don't know why. 

Now

I went for a late afternoon nap but started playing with words in my head. Liked these words so dashed for a pen and pad, and wrote the following poem.

Just take your mind beyond our time and space

Continuum.

All things have happened, whatever they are.

The Universe has died, or been reborn

Again and Again,

In God’s Embrace.

You and I were born and passed away.

Andromeda and the Milky Way were merged.

Our Earth was roasted when the Sun ballooned into a Red Giant.

The Human Race had its day

And learnt its fate.

And I wrote this.

It all has happened, as I say,

Yet still is happening

Now.

Paul Butters

Voice

Oh great Voice of mine,

Deafen them with your roar.

Inspire those readers

With rhetorical power.

Make their hearts and spirits soar

To Mount Olympus

And beyond.

Pound their ears with decibels so loud,

Then lower

To a whisper.

Sooth their souls with songs

And lullabies

So smooth.

Tinkle like a mountain stream,

And echo through the caverns

Of their minds.

Resonate within my head,

And echo again

And again

In theirs.

Call the Muses to my aid

To wave their magic wands

And serenade those readers

With a symphony

Of sensual delight.

Paul Butters