The Nature Of Truth - A Science Fiction Poem Poem by Daniel Brick

This is not the whole story.
Truth in our world is always
a fragment whose jagged edges
suggest an equally jagged whole.
You must, before your quest begins,
assess a plethora of warnings.
The jagged circumference of
the whole truth might lacerate
you mercilessly; you could lose
a hand trying to connect two pieces,
much more the whole; the surface may be
incandescent and scorch your hands,
even your face; after all your efforts,
what if you find the pieces incomplete?
The whole cannot be achieved in our world,
only a stuttering, strangled half-speech
will ever be made manifest....

My friend, there may be worlds out there
beyond the rim of space, passed the nebulae
whose swirling light blinds our vision and
our telescopes, even the most sensitive
instruments of discovery. But perhaps
on one of those hidden worlds, TRUTH
is One and Whole. And people live
perfectly circular lives, or perfectly
triangular lives, and their perfections
may be equal to the task of flight
between the stars. They may be in quest
of our partial truth just as we are
of their absolute truth. It may yet happen.
We may find people whose every day of existence
fulfills our hope that each person carries
the SOUL OF TRUTH within. Perhaps they will be
the happiest people in the universe because
they can grasp the Whole Story. Or they will be
the saddest people because the Whole Story is
an awful disappointment, true but unresonant,
complete but of no lasting interest...
Is it not better to live each fragment
of time fully, to listen to the music
of the present for its temporary glory,
to absorb each day's partial truth,
and to embrace the inevitable darkness
of night, as our dreams anticipate
moments of wonders yet to come?