Time is the Measurement
Robin Helweg-Larsen
Time is the measurement of rearranging atoms.
Atoms are rearranged like blocks, and that is time.
Putting the blocks back as they were before is not going back in time.
There is no past,
there is no future,
there is only the eternal present.
There was a past, there will be a future… but you can’t get there from here,
except as the atoms rearrange.
A time machine would have to rearrange the atoms
of the world,
of the galaxy,
of the entire universe,
to put every particle back into some prior arrangement.
The calculations, let alone the actions, would be… difficult.
It is no wonder that we have never seen visitors from the future.
They don’t exist. There is no future, and there is no past.
There is only the eternal present.
Enjoy it.
The Science
Time may be a dimension and a useful concept, but it is not a dimension in the sense of something that one can move back and forth in. We measure time with atomic clocks, which produce electromagnetic radiation that atoms in the clock absorb. Cesium atoms absorb microwaves with a frequency of 9,192,631,770 cycles per second, which then defines the international scientific unit for time, the second. Accurate time like this has helped to prove Einstein’s theories about time moving at different rates when clocks are moving at different speeds. Without accurate clocks and an understanding of Einstein’s theories about the speed of light and space-time, we wouldn’t have the Global Positioning System (GPS), which uses clocks in space and on the ground to show you where you are.
The Poet
Anglo-Danish by birth but raised in the Bahamas, Robin Helweg-Larsen has lived and worked in half a doze countries but has returned to his home town of Governor's Harbour. He has published some 400 poems in the Alabama Literary Review, Allegro, Ambit, Amsterdam Quarterly, etc; is Series Editor for Sampson Low's 'Potcake Chapbooks - form in formless times', and blogs at www.formalverse.com.
Next poem: Why I Cannot Write Poetry by Kshemaahna Nagi