Though some believed that just as beauty
Space was in the eye of the beholder,
An abstract justification for human experience
Of matter and its motion,
An ancient thinker, by history called the Great,
Asserted with conviction, it simply did not exist.
‘Nothing’ was not a concept of nature abhorring
Vacuum, and all agreed.
As nothing came from nothing,
‘Nothing’ couldn’t be. Empty space
Out of consciousness’ reach.
Deprived of objects it had no purpose,
For what would its purpose be
If not that of being a place
To contain all that exists?
The mind puzzling game concocted
If space could exist independently of matter
Matter could not exist independently of space,
For where would it be?
So came another thinker questioning
‘Is space something rather than nothing?’
As indeed deprived of the object, undeniably
The place de facto would still exist.
Time passing by replaced thinkers with scientists,
Defining its nature for it to be infinite and absolute,
Existing independently of objects and the mind of the observer,
Observing its balancing force, counteracting that of gravity,
To keep things apart. Dark energy, Energy of space.
Now searching for particles to fill in the voids
To justify the dynamic and expanding quality
Of a Universe which might as well
Be a plenum.
Retracing back the steps to initial perceptions
Of inexistent space for a Cosmos filled,
With fundamental particles elegantly orchestrating
The motion of all that ever was, is and will be.
All that exists, a plenum of energy.
[Featured painting: Above the Clouds by Holly Anderson]