I died, and after the night

I saw a beckoning, warm white light.

Infinite void through eternal time

Darkness that is absolute absence

With only hydrogen atoms scattered in space

Until gravity upset equilibrium

And atoms grouped in small close masses

Which attracted more and more bits of matter

Larger and larger compression centers

Built up heat, and mass, and movement

Until the first atomic fusion

Created other atoms, and emitted light.

I died, and after the night

I saw a beckoning, warm white light.

The stars burned, and darkness ended

And every element that now exists

Was created in a fiery star.

Each atom in and of the earth

Started in some far off sun.

And once cooled in this temperate zone

Combinations began to form

New substances came to pass

Water covered the greatest height

And above, air and sunlight.

I died, and after the night

I saw a beckoning, warm white light.

The sun shone down on pregnant water

Where molecules found new arrangements

Different forms with unique properties

That processed matter to extend themselves.

Special parts for different functions

Refinement honed through fathomless time

Until fins and teeth and brains evolved

And survival problems were gradually solved.

Then with smelling and hearing, feeling and sight

The first amphibians crawled up to the warm sunlight.

I died, and after the night

I saw a beckoning, warm white light.

Plants made sunlight into animal food

And animals ate animals who ate leaves and grass.

Most were active by day, and at night hid themselves

To replenish their strength with rest and ancient dreams.

Some cried to the moon as their blood became warm

And they gathered, for the group kept them from harm.

Some stood, and ran, and their brains grew

Their future was certain when their numbers were few.

They sat around fires in the cold night

And pondered vague questions as they gazed at the light.

I died, and after the night

I saw a beckoning, warm white light.

As language developed, stories passed down

When fathers told sons the ways of the world.

And the sun, they said, was all life’s source

Divining human history by its course.

Symbols, figures, and appointed men

Replaced the sun, and people worshipped them.

Dogma and ritual strengthened belief

But always, the subliminal solar motif.

Veiled in mystery, instilled with might,

Called Father, known as light.

I died, and after the night

I saw a beckoning, warm white light.

Water falls and rises up, is consumed and excreted.

As the cycle begins, so it is completed.

Death comes, and flesh returns to soil,

But life never stops. The molecular coil

Insures that sameness and difference return again.

Life is born only where life has been.

That the greatest terror is approached in peace,

That an end to existence could possibly please

Is perhaps inbred, to protect from cold fright,

But origins and endings, both are hidden in starlight.

I died, and after the night

I saw a beckoning, warm white light.