TIME TRAVELLER TWO:
VISIONS OF THE UNIVERSE

    VISIONS OF THE UNIVERSE

    Several people have asked me to the effect:  “If you could travel anywhere in time, where would you want to go?”  After considerable thought about Jurassic, Triassic, and other dawning eras -- big bugs, dinosaurs, primeval man, diddling with history, and other in-depth pondering, I’ve decided I’d like to go into the FUTURE -- to an era of peaceful stability and well-developed space travel.
    Why?  Because I’ve always longed to “step out” into our Universe, and have had an intense curiosity and longing about other stars, planets, galaxies, and even our own Universe, itself.  But since I’m stuck in this “present” for now, my thought processes and imagination are my only means of travel.  As such, I offer you this poem to express my own feelings about accessing our Universe and maybe taking passengers on a Grand Tour.  It’s called:  “COME WITH ME TO THE STARS”.

Come with me to the stars --

I’ll take you where my ship will go,
To places most will never know.

Beyond the reins of Eternal Night,
Pierced by untold spots of light,

Like many gleaming swarms of bees,
In whatever direction that one sees.

Past Mars’ Grand Canyon and its dunes,
With both its ravaged, dying moons.

Past Jupiter’s dense eternal clouds,
And Io’s fiery volcanic shrouds.

Toward Saturn’s rings flying high,
With space debris just floating by.

To dead-world Pluto, past Neptune’s blue,
With our Solar System’s farmost view.

Ride aboard the Milky Way
As its restless arms convulse and sway,

Past other spirals floating free,
To see what all the eye can see.

Nebulae with glowing gas
Veil our journey as we pass,

Sweeping through the galaxies,
In whatever manner we might please:

Upward, downward, and transverse,
To the very rim of our Universe.

And beyond, out toward Infinity,
With its empty black Eternity,

And whatever greater depths might be
Of unbound free-form energy.

It’s all out there and much much more,
The wonders you’ve been yearning for.

Come with me to the stars --

    The following two poems are excerpted from BTTM -- about Time Traveller Two’s time travel onward from 802702 to the Far Future.  Perhaps I’d want to glimpse the final fate of all, Earth’s demise -- if it can be reached with the capability of any Time Machine!  Chances are, it probably can’t!  But have a look, anyway, at Time Traveller Two’s impressions beyond 802702, which are also covered vividly in BTTM.

Escaping a “zero-one” chasm timeline,
I sped ahead toward this future of mine.

With my first encounter of events such as this,
I thought that the Time Machine acted amiss:

For which I must stop and check for repair,
Or risk a primitive stranding somewhere.

So I came to an era of timely advance,
Lending my fate to Oasis of Chance.

The tumult of change-flow under me:
Was indeed quite a sight for someone to see!

Of society’s barest remnants forlorn
Came a new life thriving and city reborn.

So I glided adrift to a tree-sheltered ledge
And parked my machine at outcrop’s edge.

Inspecting the workings, I found nothing wrong;
Then I gazed at the city so new and so strong.

Taking in breaths of pure sweet air,
I savored this gentle wood’s scents so fair.

Beyond loomed that wonderful city this day
In sweeping-wide hill-scenes falling away.

So huge and lustrous, this valley of gems:
A graceful sight with its undying Tems!

Standing in awe, I dubbed it New Mor,
Tempted to mingle:  its pleasures explore.

But no!  Much rushed with Far-Future to see:
No real-time to waste in aging of me.

Perhaps I’ll return at some other light
And study more closely Futrozoic’ssight.

But now, for sure, it’s time to leave,
And not one moment about it grieve.

Concluding that all was safe and right,
I chose to resume my time in flight!

I continued my quest to realize
The ultimate cinders of Earth’s demise;

To witness such timely event ever beckoned,
At the rate of two hundred years per second:

Where present’s entire recorded history
Fleets by with every two minutes of mystery.

Of real-time alone in boredom so stifling,
To forge ahead in that grayish lightning.

Where mankind’s smallest and briefest intrusion
Little affected time’s total inclusion.

When nearing a week in stifling flight,
As the days strobed by in that grayish light,

To spend my whole life in fleeting climb,
Earth still would abide during my lifetime:

Like an infinite journey I’d just begun,
But getting no further than the number “one”!

Yet ever and ever, fast-forward I sped
To witness that spectacle of Earth gone dead.

Such grief-driven quest of futile plan
Ever pursued by a time-sped man!

But soon the reality of fact set in:
To see Earth’s demise, I’d never begin!

So choosing to end this hapless flight,
In the dying shadows of Earth’s half-light:

Tired and weary, my stopping would be
In the year one-hundred-three million A.D.!

Before me, spread out that gray-sand shore,
Far into my timeline’s corridor,

With scarlet-filamented, darkling sky
And a low sun dulled to light it by,

With a steady-reddened reflection quite grim,
Stilled o’er a blackened ocean so dim:

An interesting sight in this dying world,
Out of time’s abyss, from which I’d been hurled!

So I stepped outside for a closer look;
While its panorama of views I took,

Then came a gentle stirring of cold
To enhance this decaying world so old.

I savored the scents of this great time-span:
Like the purest-fresh air first breathed by man!

A chill of atmosphere rarified but pure,
With no other humans within it to lure.

Mottled lichens beset the tidal murk
With nature’s encrusted handiwork.

No signs of any other lifeforms here,
In this absolute desolation so drear.

Just loneliness pained to ache one’s soul,
Marooned and stranded upon this shoal.

I walked up and down its cindery shores,
This ashy beach-remnant of decaying cores,

To unknot those days of cramped time-flight,
Imprisoned in such confinement so tight.

The cockpit sittings were certainly rough;
But had my journey gone far enough?

I harbored thoughts of continuing on;
For just ahead might Earth’s doom lay anon.

As the rarified cold did penetrate,
I thought how futile to tempt further fate.

And so I made my decision right there:
I’d already gone as far as I dare!

I’d return to times most suited to me,
For companionship and people to see,

To love and cherish those values I know,
Where back to Humanity’s era, I’d go!

    One final poetic tidbit on a different subject:  almost a century ago, near Miramar Beach, near Half Moon Bay (south of San Francisco), California, a terrible tragedy occurred.  For those who might frolic recklessly around the waters near shore, it is most important to have full respect for the churning waters.  NEVER ever turn your back on the ocean!  It can be gentle, harsh, or deadly without warning.  Out here, there’s a very dangerous undertow, sleeper waves, and other hidden dangers that those too hypnotically drawn to the seashore often forget about when indulging their fancy-free whims.
    A sleeper wave almost got me some years ago on Dead Man’s Rock (about 25 miles further down the coast);  and recently a friend of mine, enrapt with trying out his new metal detector on the seashore, carelessly waded near the shallow waters.  This happened close to Miramar, and he almost suffered the same fate.  I saw the 30-foot sleeper wave coming, and kept waving for him to come back ashore;  he ignored my warning, and almost paid the ultimate price.  He complained about his shoes being soaked -- he’s lucky to have escaped with his life!
    If the giant wave had broken a little further shoreward and the treacherous undertow had dragged him out into the waters, all I could’ve done would’ve been to watch helplessly as he drowned!  I might also note that this area is very close to a most rugged and dangerous surfer beach called “Mavericks”, less than a mile away.  Many people have been lost out there because they also flaunted the ocean.
    About early 1900, a young couple very much in love were enjoying a “day at the beach” at Miramar, paying careless heed to the dangers.  The young woman’s lover was sucked out into the deep waters and drowned, and the devastated bride-to-be never recovered from her loss.  It’s said she often walked the sands of that shore, pacing the length of the beach repeatedly, from one end to the other, just gazing at the rolling waves, pining away over the tragedy.  Devastated, consumed by overwhelming grief, she withered and passed away a few years later.
    Supposedly, her ghost still walks that very same beach, visible at certain hours of the day, usually in autumn, just after sunset or before sunrise.  Perhaps her sorrowful moans also pervade that beach.  The legend is unclear;  the story even may not even be true.  But about mid-1995, thinking about it inspired the following poem:

On Miramar Beach, there legend be,
From early twentieth century,

That a mystery lady with outstretched hands
Restlessly haunts the shifting sands.

Myrna, she be, with upswept hair,
Young and beautiful, her face so fair,

Tall and slender, walking the beach,
In flowing neck-scarf, always to beseech.

Mostly at twilight, as the sun fades away,
Her beauty, in the winds, does gently sway.

One day, into the waves, her lover did go,
Meeting his doom in the waters below.

Her grief-stricken sorrow knew no bounds,
As ever she wandered the beach in her rounds.

For her lost love, searching, wending her way,
Through the hazy mists of ocean spray.

In autumn eves, when the tides are out,
Her presence strengthens, around and about.

Wearing filmy, gauzy, diaphanous attire,
In eerie white do her sightings transpire.

It’s said that on a moonlit night,
Her restless spirit reflects quite bright!

Through freshly stirring breezes of eve,
A somber tone of sadness does weave,

While the distant roars of tides at sea,
Bring forth her doleful crying plea.

Solemn and demure in her quest of lore,
This beautiful spirit haunting the shore:

One hopes that some day, her lover she’ll find,
And rest her eternal soul so kind.

And anyone sighting those outstretched hands,
Will have met this gentle Lady of the Sands.

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****Please E-mail any further questions to:
 “Burt” <timetravellertwo@netzero.net>

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    Webpage Copyright © 2002 by Burt Libe.  Copyright has been registered.  Permission is granted to quote from this webpage, provided credit is given to the author/ copyright-holder, along with reference to “TimeTravellerTwo” and this website.

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