Four cats leaping, caught in space,
Furry felines in a fiery line
Or: one cat jumping down from above,
A single being in four flashes of time.
What is the truth – one cat or four?
One cat that moves or four that stay still?
Space and time twine themselves together –
Each is the other, either is both.
In our picture, time becomes space;
In our writing, space becomes time.
So in the real world, time joins with space,
A dazzling unity, to make up space-time.
One man saw this and stated it clear;
A prophet of science made this openly known.
What we call space depends how we move;
What we call time depends where we are.
All events that we see are like flies caught in amber,
Like blobs on the great web that makes up space-time.
Thus nothing is lost and nothing is broken –
All that has been exists without time.
The One sees our story, not flickering, passing,
But written for ever in the book of space-time.
The lives that we lead are not gone forever
But can be re-read and fresh passages written.
So four cats in one cat and one cat in four,
Show a lifetime in a moment and eternity’s shape.
As a painting to us are we to the Artist;
As a writing to us are we to the Author.
Be glad that we capture some time with our paints,
And rejoice in the trapping of time with our words.