Love In The Time Of Singularity Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

Being in love is a highly disordered state - so there you are, about to leap into a black hole.

It transforms lives, alters judgment, consumes attention.

What could possibly await should — against all odds — you somehow survive?

‘Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;

Where would you end up and what tantalising tales would you be able to regale if you managed to clamber your way back?

Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes:

Falling through an event horizon is literally passing beyond the veil — once someone falls past it, no message could ever be sent back.

Being vex'd a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears:

They'd be ripped to pieces by the enormous gravity.

What is it else? a madness most discreet,

Should you then find yourself at the event horizon

A choking gall and a preserving sweet …'

Tidal forces might reduce your body into strands of atoms through 'spaghettification'

Love does take us and transfigure and torture us.

The idea that you could pop out somewhere — perhaps at the other side — seems utterly fantastical.

It does break our hearts with an unbearable beauty, like the unbearable beauty of music.

What's more, because time distorts close to this boundary, this will appear to take place incredibly slowly, so answers won't be quickly forthcoming.

But in so far as we have certainly something to do with the matter;

Maybe a black hole leads to a white hole?

In so far as we are in some sense prepared to fall in love and in some sense to jump into it;

Unlike a black hole, a white hole will allow light and matter to leave, but light and matter will not be able to enter.

In so far as we do to some extent choose and to some extent even judge -

Giving extra credence to the idea of black holes serving as a portal.

In all this falling in love is not truly romantic, it is not truly adventurous at all.

Such that singularity does not exist, and so it does not form an impenetrable barrier that ends up crushing whatever it encounters.

Or you might prefer a more cynical approach: it also means that information doesn't disappear.

If you ask me—and I have now had time to think about this—love, or what people call love -

It would be impossible to figure out what went in by looking at what is coming out

As it may be just a system for getting people to call you Darling after sex.

Someone crossing the event horizon might not actually feel any great hardship

After all, no neurons can be seen sparking with ecstasy

Because an object would be in free fall and, based on the equivalence principle,

And none are seen to fade or even pink or plonk with despair

That object — or person — would not feel the extreme effects of gravity

When the altered state returns to some kid of stasis.