Oblivion?

A Thousand Dimensions

Volume 1

When I was young, I did not understand ‘oblivion’, being eternally cut off and yet fully aware.

A lifetime it has taken to reach this point …

At school, we learned biblical stories. We learned about the mythical kingdoms of heaven and hell. This has not undermined my faith. But it has placed me very firmly outside the box.

If not, then I’m expected to subscribe to stories and futures that are as real as Game of Thrones, or Alice having a bad day with her looking glass, and any number of other wonderfully interwoven stories that started off as campfire entertainment, a means of teaching principles of good and wise living, interwoven with actual events until, suddenly, everything was deemed to have happened exactly as narrated.

The central tenet of this dimension is the question …

What is this you have done?

[i]

It is the question, I was taught, that was asked by God of the devil in tempting Eve and Adam to eat of the tree of life. In this fireside story, the question, though, was put to Eve, although I did not realise this until well into middle age.

Many books later in the Bible[ii], I read of the moment when evil, in the apparent form of Lucifer - the light-bearer - dared to be like The Most High, then made the situation even worse by stating that he would ascend even above the stars of heaven.

In the story, his downfall was swift and immediate.

I write this dimension in the way of asking us to imagine that death is actually merely the gateway to the start of our journey.

The start of awareness and yet consigned to oblivion, unable to communicate yet wanting to, as opposed to this peculiar notion of ‘sleeping’.

The final lines of this dimension [iii], for me personally, give me great hope and confidence.

And this is why I was thrilled to find Alen Rojnic’s stunning portrait that heads this piece. For every relationship that starts off well and then goes off the rails, I meet thousands of people who, even a lifetime on, have that same love for each other as is captured here by Alen Rojnic. And this gives me encouragement and guarantees certainty.

PART I

He lay there pondering

What is this you have done?

Distant scriptures from his genesis

Invading his space,

Piercing his soul,

Convicting his spirit.

He reasoned out his thinking,

His rationale,

His logic.

He stretched himself in defiance,

Rebuking those thoughts,

Rebuking that Question

with his own rebuke!

You do not even exist! 

Silence …

Blackness …

A density of black

he had never imagined possible …

any light,

even a hint,

Impossible to see …

The more he looked,

The more he searched,

The more his eyes implored

that light should show itself,

his was the blackness

darker even than blindness.

He sought suffocation.

But even in that denseness,

thick congealed blackness

covered him.

Oblivion reigned

Cut off

but forever aware of life,

Life that had left him.

I’m an atheist so you’ve 

got no hold over me!

I have no desire to have a hold.

Why would I bother?

What is to be gained

from a soul so wretched

that it is torn asunder,

lying prostrate upon the wreck

of Jealousy and Envy

Of a demand to be Equal?

… lying prostrate upon the wreck of Jealousy and Envy, of a demand to be Equal …

Part II

You can’t pin that on me!

I’m a lovely man!!

Are you?

Yes!

It’s the others …

They hate me!

So I want to kill them,

And I do … !!!

Yes I know.

In your life I observe

character assassinations,

And in my observation

I always find that you have been wronged

… not in truth …

… in your head …

wronged by your own

miscalculated reasoning

And so you turn on friends.

You spread lies, gossip and deceit.

And then you become a bully.

A bully is a bore.

A bully is a spiteful mole eating upon

the rump of humanity.

A bully is a tyrant.

Part III

Don’t talk to me.

You don’t exist!

Then why are you answering?

True,

I do not exist in the forms that

humankind will have me,

Trussed up, strapped up, pinned down

between the lines of ancient writings.

But be assured of this …

I DO

I AM

I WILL

this too …

WE DO

WE ARE

WE WILL

You made your choice.

Don’t worry.

You have many other lifetimes

to sort yourself out.

I never give in.

We never give.

Each time you return

Die Hölle auf Erden.

You learn a little more.

Your subconscious remembers

something or more from

a previous life or lives,

And gradually you

sort yourself out.

But Oblivion is a place for no one.

You alone have put yourself there.

How long you stay

Well …

That’s up to you.

PART IV

But listen well.

Stop besmirching those who 

have done no wrong to you

Stop using Social Media

to argue your debased causes.

Stop making threats

STOP BULLYING.

Stop trying to break up friendships.

Your card is marked.

I am saddened

I had great plans and visions for you,

I know your potential

But you have thrown that in My Face

 .

I know the love

you are capable of… 

Fortunately, for you

I am of limitless patience …

But your present predicament

you have brought upon yourself.

And so, as with Nebuchadnezzar,

You too must follow a similar path.

Nebuchadnezzar?

But …

Quite!

So at a time of your choosing,

The congealed blackness

WILL concede to the glimmer

of light emanating from within you.

8 November 2021
All Rights Reserved

© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2022



Composed 3 April 2014

Footnotes

[i] Genesis 3 : 13

[ii] Isaiah 14 : 13-14

[iii] Also appears as Oblivion but not as a question in Poetry

Banner Photo by Alen Rojnic on Unsplash

Alen Rojnic’s stunning portrait concludes this piece. For every relationship that starts off well and then goes off the rails, I meet thousands of people who, even a lifetime on, have that same love for each other as is captured here by Alen Rojnic. And this not only gives me encouragement, but it guarantees certainty.