The Signal Failure of Material Science
(Causing all in its train to crash)

Has always been
To focus all attention
On what can be seen,
Heard, touched, smelled, tasted
While disregarding
What’s immaterial
As if it doesn’t exist
Within, throughout and all about
Us
.
So that when we see a body
Moving through space
We think that’s all there is to it
Not noticing what’s quietly
Simultaneously
Slipping through it
.
And when we place a ruler
Across a gap
We think we’re measuring the space
Between one thing and another
When all we are really measuring
Is the scale of the ruler itself
And when we use a clock
To tell us how long it takes
To move from place to place
We think we’re measuring the time
Between then and then
When all we are really measuring
Is the clock’s tick tock
.
Whenever we try to measure
In material terms
What’s immaterial
We get ourselves in a fix
Trying to work out
What is and what’s not
Real
.
Like the speed of light
As if space and time
Are material things in themselves
Not their immaterial essences
Which combine in receptive-responsive relationship
To make our world and ourselves
As it is and we are
Darkness and light personified
In flowing material form
.
So, when you think it takes time
For light to travel to us from a star
As if it’s sent out in packages
Whether we’re here to accept them or not
.
Just pause to reflect for a moment
On the possibility
That what really takes time
Is for us as material packages
To acknowledge receipt
And return. with thanks to sender
Completing the circuit between us
Because light can manifest only
When gathered into material form