1. |
The Body Cosmic
09:58
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THE BODY COSMIC
"As I see my soul reflected in Nature,
As I see through a mist, One with inexpressible
completeness, sanity, beauty,
See the bent head and arms folded over the breast, the
Female I see."
"Each belongs here or anywhere just as much as the well-off,
just as much as you,
Each has his or her place in the procession.
(All is a procession,
The universe is a procession with measured and perfect
motion)."
"Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own bodies
conceal themselves?
And if those who defile the living are as bad as they who
defile the dead?
And if the body does not do fully as much as the soul?
And if the body were not the soul, then what is the soul?"
- "I Sing The Body Electric," Walt Whitman
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2. |
Dark Matter Genetics
02:00
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3. |
I Contain Multitudes
14:31
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I CONTAIN MULTITUDES
We are the body cosmic;
the interconnected flesh.
Transfigured and forged
in sidereal flame;
dark matter genetics
pulse through our veins.
But life begins shattered;
our first breaths are scattered;
and we are born broken.
Whatever I am is the creation of others.
Coalescence
Nurture molds what nature has made.
I contain multitudes
Shield the eyes—maternal fire;
fragments of self in the distance.
Cosmic background kin;
ego dies in the frigid expanse.
Identity killed by the knowledge of station;
unwhole apart—everything together;
the untethered celestial
children of cosmic debris.
Whatever I am is the creation of others.
Coalescence
Nurture molds what nature has made.
I contain multitudes
Lungs heavy with stellar dust;
beating blood-red star hearts;
eternal matter incarnate;
is this the grand design?
Where does the weight of the universe lie?
With the stars up high,
or with the space between them?
With the planets above,
or with the suns that feed them?
Where does the weight of the universe lie?
With the brain that breeds thoughts,
or with the mouth that speaks them?
Where does the weight of the universe lie?
With the limbs of a body,
or with the muscles that move them?
Here, from the vantage of stars,
a revelation;
no whole exceeds its parts.
Every cell;
a monument to insignificance.
Every mind;
an ode to circumstance.
The truth that each of us must seek:
Where does the weight of the universe lie,
if not with me?
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4. |
Galaxy Collective
02:09
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GALAXY COLLECTIVE
"For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love."
- Carl Sagan, "Contact"
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5. |
For Creatures Such As We
12:56
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FOR CREATURES SUCH AS WE
Lifegiver;
burn bright!
Sear flesh from bone, boil blood in veins,
gild this glass heart; fuel, I am.
Chase away the darkness.
Dancing flames, on chariots ride,
to unmake the absence—to drown out the stars.
Lifegiver;
give life!
Reach out; stretch across infinity,
to infinity, from infinity;
ribbons of flame across the void;
yellow tendrils grasp at cosmic straws.
Defy the universe to grant us sight.
Gild this glass heart before it breaks.
An elegant orbit;
two bodies as one.
Gravitational caress;
a waltz of fire to scorch the abyss.
Lifegiver;
shine light!
Set a fire to this corner of the world.
Rid the shadows from these eternal walls.
Vanquish the monster of this design;
reveal the path from you to I;
open the sky;
travel the distance;
and I will make us whole.
I steal a molten kiss from the cosmos;
I suck the flaming air from open lungs.
You give what you are;
I take what I am;
a celestial merchant
with nothing to trade.
I am alone.
Your light wanes; your energy expires;
I’ve taken too much,
engulfed entirely by what I’ve desired.
Your death will be the death of us both.
But my heart—my heart, it beats still.
Be still my heart.
Gild this glass heart before it breaks.
An elegant orbit;
two bodies as one.
Gravitational caress;
a waltz of fire to scorch the abyss.
Birthed into nowhere,
ignorant of purpose;
a howl erupts from this desolate rock.
Spiraling outwards;
an echo through eternity.
Falling upon no ears;
joining the choir of a million cries more;
a plea for a spark to ignite the soul;
a plea for love in the vastness of it all.
Do you hear my call?
Lifegiver;
surrender to me!
Burden me with your creations.
Paint yourself across this dead space.
Illuminate color
where there was only grey.
Plant your seeds in rotten soil.
Give yourself unto me, fully;
power me, complete me,
and your fading light,
will blanket
my blossoming trees.
Lifegiver; give life!
Lifegiver; burn out!
You are my sun.
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6. |
Hadean Heart
04:54
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7. |
Moonwatcher
02:06
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8. |
The Star Of Collapse
18:00
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THE STAR OF COLLAPSE
Act I.
The Gravedigger’s shovel hits the dirt.
The tip of his blade lingers on the surface;
here lies the last of the unpierced soil.
He begs for the strength to refuse his work,
to reject his function, to forfeit his design;
he will not dig, he will not defile.
Or so it goes (in his dreams);
And so it has gone (it has gone);
And so it will go (so he will dig).
He casts his eyes
towards the scorched horizon;
an unearthly lightning splits the sky.
A sick-black angel’s breath
creeps towards the stars;
its ghostly fingers pull down
a torch of mass-produced fire.
And below its bitter light,
the Gravedigger digs the graves
for all mankind.
Or so it goes (in his dreams);
And so it has gone (it has gone);
And so it will go (so he will dig).
Act II.
He pushes his shovel into the ground.
Around him blare the trumpets of doom.
Blood runs from his hands,
the spade stained red;
self-hate made manifest;
to find purpose in burying the dead.
“Why?” he cries, “Why end this life?”
“Why bury innocence under an ocean of dirt?”
Behind him sounds a sinister song;
a poisonous whisper;
an answer from the stars.
He turns to face what he knows is there;
she who commands his work;
The many-armed siren; angel of history;
a body of smoke, floating above the ground.
“You have done this!” he declares.
“You have made them this way!
You have made it so!”
"A grotesque ballet;
a play staged by choice.
There is no innocence here;
no purity among men.
Squandered gifts
turned violence to virtue;
tools of creation
repurposed for hate."
Act III.
He stands defiant in the angel’s radiant flames.
“The illusion of choice; choices made from a cage.
Have you ever seen anything such as this?
The power, the beauty, the love?
Offer them another chance!
Free the potential buried here by my hands.”
"Choice within limits,
as vast as the cosmos.
Chances that outnumber the stars.
Devolution, instead;
reversion to primitive states.
A desire for blood, the death of compassion;
their well performed art: the harvest of pain."
“Evolutionary impulse; can you fault them?
Reptilian brain; can they be blamed?”
"There did exist the space
for love instead of hate;
for peace instead of pain;
for empathy and grace.
Some of them knew what all could know;
most others rejected en masse.
They made their choice to die;
they made their choice to dig."
Act IV.
The air begins to tremble;
the ground begins to crack.
The trumpets crescendo;
a storm through creation;
swaths of existence
ripped straight from the Earth.
The angel points to the abyss.
He hangs his head, the last grave left;
a choice and a chance.
He drops his shovel.
His mistakes can never be undone.
The Gravedigger—old, broken, tired,
lowers himself into the grave,
closes his eyes,
and takes his final breath.
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9. |
Angelus Novus
03:39
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ANGELUS NOVUS
“I’ll be taken apart. Redistributed. My soul, you might say, will go for awhile into a room of voices. A great dim room. And someday - if I’m very wise, and very good - perhaps I’ll gain the greatest gift of all: Life.”
- The Twilight Zone, "I Sing The Body Electric"
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Iapetus
"Where does the weight of the Universe lie..."
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