In Significance

                   In Significance




         I’m merely one among millions,
         part of a fleeting mayfly dance;
         unremarked and unremembered
         when my seventy years have passed.

         My lifetime is barely a blink
         for a world that circles a sun,
         with billions of years behind it
         and billions of years yet to come.

         Earth’s only a small blue marble
         in thrall to a yellowish star;
         neither especially noted
         in a far-flung galactic arm.

         Sol’s one of two hundred billion,
         just a drop in the Milky Way.
         There may be a trillion planets
         in the galaxy’s full array.

         Our galaxy’s just a fragment
         among trillions that fill the night,
         eternally soaring outward
         in sublime universal flight.

         The universe may be one burst
         in an infinite fireworks show.
         A multiverse of endless birth,
         realities we’ll never know.

         Trillions of trillions of planets;
         how many where life can hold sway?
         How many civilizations
         where extraterrestrials pray?

         I’m just a pin-point speck of dust,
         and I’m lost in a vast expanse.
         The fact that I exist at all
         seems miraculous random chance.

         A place in this cosmic wonder
         I can claim because here I stand,
         fully part of God’s creation,
         though I’m less than a grain of sand.


                   Terrence G. Fisher © 2019



Author's Note ▼

Astronomers have counted more than 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy and more than 2 trillion galaxies in the visible universe. The number of planets is more difficult to estimate, but it’s possible that it exceeds 10 to the 20th power (a one followed by 20 zeros). So, if even one in a trillion planets can support life, then the known universe contains millions of planets that could have a civilization similar to our own. And it seems certain that even more stars and planets lie beyond what’s visible to us.

If the thought of a universe with millions of alien worlds isn’t enough to make you feel insignificant, then consider this: Many cosmologists suggest that ours is not the only ‘big bang’ and that many universes may exist in an infinite array that they call the multiverse. However, they also say that it’s not possible to observe or interact with these other universes, so they may belong more in the realm of faith than of science.

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