The truth about what Earth is – what it’s made of, the universe in which it spins, the delicate balance that exists amongst its inhabitants – has increased over all our generations as we have learned more and more about it. Yet we are not satisfied for we do not know everything. In this moment, the light that is knowledge, surrounds us and yet evades us. So the quest continues...

1. We stand in brilliant light.

2. Coveted by
generations
our memories
have long
forgotten,
it collects and
dances around us
–

3. refracting into
splendour
as it illumines
places
once fit

4. only as the habitations
of that great and fearsome

5. monster of our imaginings –

6. That Which is Not Known.

7. Once mere slivers invading the darkness,

8. the light now
cascades in sheets
of glory
over the wide
expanse of the
natural world,

9. stretching
our
understanding
in equal measure

10. by “too big”

11. and “too small” to see.

12. Yet even showers of this unprecedented
radiance

13. cannot
conquer the
unruly beast of
the unknown.

14. Tethered to the confines of our own
realities,

15. we cannot rule what we do not know
nor can we let it be.

16. So we poke
and prod
and posit our way
through ideas and possibilities,
hypotheses and half-born dreams

17. to truths another generation may reveal

18. that we –
our memory
long forgotten –

19. might be the source of even a single
shimmer

20. of
the
brilliant light
in which they’ll stand.