What is Life?
In biology class,
we were told:
collect five things,
living or not,
from the schoolyard ground.
Leaves, butterflies, worms, dragonflies,
flowers, roots, twigs, birds, bugs,
fruits, dogs, squirrels —
we called them living.
Soda cans, plastic bottles, stones,
candy sticks, paper bags, dirt,
air, water —
we called them not.
And then the teacher asked:
“What makes living things
different from non-living things?”
Science answered with rules:
Consume food in the form of energy.
Exhibit motion. Reproduce. React.
Be made of cells.
But I said:
Air, water, soil are born of nature,
they must be alive.
Man-made things, they are not.
My teacher shook her head.
Life, she said, is more than origin.
It is energy, motion,
reproduction, reaction, cells.
Yet even science stumbles.
Some creatures live without cells.
Some live missing traits.
Still, they are alive.
Medicine speaks differently:
Death is the failure of the heart.
Death is the failure of the lungs.
Death is the failure of the brain stem.
But medicine cheats death.
Artificial hearts, artificial lungs,
But, the brain stem
the final gatekeeper of life.
So what is life?
Science says one thing.
Medicine says another.
Octopuses pump blue blood
through three hearts.
Plants thrive without lungs.
The Moner eats without a mouth,
reproduces without organs.
Still alive.
Strip it down,
reduce the list,
eliminate the noise,
and what remains?
Energy.
Energy is the pulse.
Energy is the spark.
Without it,
nothing moves,
nothing grows,
nothing reacts.
But paradoxes rise.
Robots consume energy.
Space probes move,
see, think, die.
They mimic emotions,
simulate consciousness,
possess mechanical hearts and brains.
So where do we draw the line?
And so I ask:
What is the purpose of life?
The sun rises to give light.
Air sustains breath.
Water nourishes growth.
Fire warms the night.
Flowers bloom in Fibonacci spirals.
Mountains stand in geometry.
Animals sing beauty.
Birds teach flight.
Nature whispers information.
Forces move.
Energy empowers.
Elements shape.
Time unfolds.
Some measure life in success.
Others in health.
Others in family, in friends.
But whatever the measure,
life bends toward happiness.
Everything is a tool.
A tool with a purpose.
Purpose with a goal.
Goal with results.
Results with rewards.
Rewards with satisfaction.
In nature, it is materialization.
In mathematics, it is solutions.
In life, it is gratification.
In human terms,
it is simply —
Happiness.
"Nothing is not the absence of something, but the absence of existence." ~ Joey Lawsin
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I'm sorry, but I don't dig your poem. I do dig dirt and find all kinds of things, living and dead in it, but digging into your poem doesn't like me with any thing inspiring or new.
Ron