Lewis Allyn Simons

August 15, 1929 — August 12, 2022

My Dad surprised me late in his life with this poem, that he had crafted over the years. He would close his eyes and recite it, like a wandering poet-mystic, dreaming of the sea and stars…

O Atoms of my Body

O Atoms of my Body

Do you recall

that you were once not much at all?

Out of the depths

of darkest Space

You came to form the Human race.

Born in the cauldron

of a mighty Star –

a Dance of molecules is what we are.

So what was the cause of all of this?

Was it just for us to Exist?

So that we could Love or just as soon Kill

Anything to please us, according to our Will?

To be born and to to die and to never know why?

Or is it all just a game played in our head?

Is there anything more that needs to be said?

YES

We are the children of the stars –

We ARE the Universe.

We are living, thinking Matter

Each of us a symphony

of quantum chatter

We are

the part of the universe

that is evolving

to understand

itself

The how’s and why’s

of what we are

and will become.