A Contemplation of What Has Been Created, And Why

by  Jimmy Carter (1924-)

I tried to fathom nature’s laws
from twirling models and schoolroom sketches
of molecules and parts of atoms,
and nearly believed — but then came quarks,
bosons, leptons, antiparticles,
opposite-turning mirror images,
some that perforate the earth,
never swerving from their certain paths.
I’ve listened to conflicting views
about the grand and lesser worlds:
a big bang where it all began;
of curved, ever-expanding space;
perhaps tremendous whirling yo-yos
that will someday reach the end
of cosmic gravity and then
fly back to where they can restart
or cataclysmically blow apart —
and then, and then the next event.
And will it be an accident?