93 Percent Stardust
There is so much magic in the night, in a sky full of beautiful stars. My attention to the wonder of the cosmos has been slowly building from reading Carl Sagan's beautiful words. As Sagan says, Astronomy is a truly humbling experience, as you realise just how small you are the grand scale of the universe. Part of an ongoing series to illustrate my poetry book, 'Your Soul is a River', each of the following artworks is accompanied by a poem/short prose piece about the stars. This series is part of a never ending series on space. I would like to credit NASA public domain images, Resurgere Stock as well as Dexter Britain's beautiful music for helping me make this series happen.
We have calcium in our bones, iron in our veins,
carbon in our souls, and nitrogen in our brains.
93 percent stardust, with souls made of flames,
we are all just stars that have people names.
carbon in our souls, and nitrogen in our brains.
93 percent stardust, with souls made of flames,
we are all just stars that have people names.
You are not small.
You are not unworthy.
You are not insignificant.
The universe wove you from a constellation just so every atom, every fibre in you comes from a different star.
Together, you are bound by stardust, altogether spectacularly created from the energy of the universe itself.
And that, my darling, is the poetry of physics, the poetry of you.
Don’t ever let other people decide for you who you will be .
You have stardust in your spine and veins that flow with galaxies.
A whole universe resides inside your body.
And no one dares to tell a universe what it can and cannot be.
Some people are born with tornados in their lives,
but constellations in their eyes.
Other people are born with stars at their feet,
but their souls are lost at sea.
but constellations in their eyes.
Other people are born with stars at their feet,
but their souls are lost at sea.
Your body was designed to contain a cosmic storm.
It is no wonder that sometimes your head and heart
hurt so much that you may just explode.
It takes a nebula,
a cosmic storm of epic proportions falling apart to create a star.
So be easy on yourself.
You are a storm in transition,
even as these words are being written.
You are made of planets and oceans and no one owns them.
Just like no one owns you.
The 13 billion year old atoms that make up the seas
are the same that run through the bodies of you and me.
Our bodies were made to house oceans of galaxies,
and our souls are rivers that have flowed through centuries.
are the same that run through the bodies of you and me.
Our bodies were made to house oceans of galaxies,
and our souls are rivers that have flowed through centuries.
There are two kinds of people who look at the night sky.
Those that look up and see a graveyard of stars.
And those that look up and see a sea of souls,
shining brightly to guide us home.
