Energy is the inherent capacity to do work;
it is stored and used in a variety of forms,
assortment of values not any quirk,
Joules, Watts, Volts, Amperes will perform.
Much energy is expended at work by
service employees doing their jobs;
calories converted by the cleaning guy,
serving, constructing or teasing out a bob.
Crystals are minerals that resonate,
apply a current and they vibrate.
They keep time and help coordinate,
improved electronics we appreciate.
Crystal atomic symmetry reflects
four fundamental forces that occupy
our universe – electrons genuflect
as nucleic forces tug and amplify.
Everything is connected to everything else,
squeeze a crystal and out comes a current,
shock a crystal and presto, it shakes itself;
One force brings the other, the same in reverse.
In the many Star Trek shows and movies,
they control vast forces with casual ease;
Beaming around, Kirk finds women easy to please;
Warp Drive moves the Enterprise instantaneously.
And that blinded us to the reality that actual
space exploration is quite tough on humans...
Hard on bodies and minds, if one is factual;
it takes a lot of money to execute space plans.
The secret is in energy, power, motive force,
things that glow, burn and scatter obstacles like ashes.
Better materials to contain it, more power to make it,
greater understanding to know what it even is. Or is not.
We first made artificial diamonds in an anvil of
heat and pressure, finally, after 100 years of trying.
Now we are trying to fuse hydrogen into helium atoms,
and get free energy, like we got free diamonds in the 1950s.
Can we tease out a new force and utilize, modify, control it?
(That “free” gets more and more costly with every iteration.)
We have learned about the quarks that comprise neutrons
and protons inside an atom: how to smash and separate them,
observe and measure them and their energy outputs. Thus
gradually accumulating knowledge that can jolt our history.
Meanwhile we drive around in horseless carriages,
propelled by internal explosions driving pistons,
gears, shafts and wheels. They spit out a lot of pollution;
When Musk dangled Tesla’s in front of us, we couldn’t resist.
He wasn’t the first, of course, not by a century or so.
But Tesla made electric cars sexy, powerful and long-lasting.
And look at us electrify our fleets now – wow.
Why should we have to crack dinosaur goop, when all we need do
is generate streams of electrons in any number of ways instead?
Energy surrounds us and suffuses us.
Radio waves permeate our walls and our beings
to link our phones, inform and entertain us.
Our brains are the most powerful bio-computers known.
We are energy manifested as physical matter. But
in the end matter and energy are linked together tight.
It just doesn’t seem that way to our animal senses.
Just as we once sailed on ships in uncertain seas,
or drove ICE vehicles on bumpy, wavy roads, so
in the future we will float on waves of pure energy.
Pure to our present way of seeing things, perhaps
bumpy with particles not quite microscopic enough.
Even now we peer into distant galactic pasts with
telescopes that gather ancient light photons, and
register differences, anomalies, similarities, color shifts.
Larger and larger mirrors peer back billions of years,
revealing birth chambers of galaxies, of our universe.
When humans finally evolve into something more,
as we have slowly been doing over the centuries,
perhaps we will acquire a more direct method of
touching and manipulating energies both small and large.
Until that day comes, we are left with using our five
digits, opposable thumbs and all, to build solutions.
Wind turbines, solar panels, geothermal pumps,
even biomass and hydroelectric stations.
We just gotta have that juice to keep everything running:
Any given tornado, hurricane or Derecho reminds us,
with every downed power line and darkened home.
More and more, energy rules our lives.
No longer indirectly, physically, but now
more directly – through power to drive our
computers, cars, homes, and cell phones.
Just wondering when the day will come,
when we humans can “uplift” and become direct
energy beings, just flitting about without any
artificial aids or assistances.
I’m sure that we will still find something to complain about.
In the meantime, my atoms say “Namaste” to your atoms -
peace always.
