The insights from Science on aspects of our day-to-day living expressed in poetry-make this book uniquely different. Human nature, lived, is the subject matter of this book of poems. I have drawn ideas from Science-mainly Evolutionary Biology-to illumine facets of human life, articulated in the rhymes and rhythms of verse. On death, for example, I attempt to provide insights from new physics notions on "nothingness". Poems are my way of making sense of the human condition we all share and we all are in. In moments of silence, the big questions come to the surface and tug at our hearts for answers. Paul Dirac, a renowned British physicist, famously remarked that poets write not to be understood, while scientists write just the opposite. With the aim of being fully understood, I offer my word compositions, arising from reflections on a lifetime. Each poem in this collection tells a little story which draws illumination mainly from the widely under-appreciated, real Story of our Creation in the evolutionary "Garden of Eden", in the savannahs in Africa. Our Creation story was not generated by pure inspiration and a rich imagination of a handful of ancient sages; but by the pyramid of facts and theories built over centuries, not by a few modern sages but literally by millions of individuals in various specific disciplines, exploring what is about us. The particular story of our creation-the theory of Evolution by Natural Selection-is just one layer in the pyramid we are ever building. The knowledge pyramid is ever expanding, undergoing continuous updates, checks and cross-checks. The poems in this book are my attempts at integrating my knowledge in Science to enrich my understanding on aspects of life as experienced in daily living. The main light comes from evolutionary biology; with complementary illuminations coming from physics, chemistry, cosmology, financial markets, genetics, and evolutionary psychology. The underlying question each poem asks is: what it is to be human. The approach of integrating Science to gain insights into daily living may be fine for non-believers. However, if you are a believer, should you not fear the possibility of your beliefs being undermined? If your belief is undermined by Science, then it seems to me that the belief in question is not worth keeping. In a process that is personal, you may succeed in aligning your beliefs and the ideas from science. Or, you may fail. In the latter case-you either reject science; or reject or modify your beliefs. It is a personal decision. What is important is that both believers and non-believers get the science right. I can assure the would-be reader that three poems will present occasions for a re-examination of the reader's beliefs. I hope that you welcome this opportunity. The outcome totally depends on you. Either way, I sincerely wish that the occasion will have provided you with the opportunity for a richer personal perspective on life. This book is not about the theory of Evolution, nor the building of the knowledge pyramid. Rather, it uses the fact of Evolution by Natural and Sexual Selection, to shed light on the human condition experienced in our daily lives. Each poem in this book centers on an experience, which finds illumination from the fact that we humans are just a twig among the millions of other twigs of the One Tree of Life. Our brain is a mirror enabling us to see the reality about us. The reflections I see in my mirror-on Nature, our place in Nature, the meaning of life, or what it is to be human-I express in the verbal music of ideas. I hope you find the ideas meaningful and helpful; the music, pleasant and enjoyable. Let us begin by celebrating the diversity, the exquisite design and beauty of life around us: Life is ubiquitous; its forms, multifarious; Its richness, enormous; its designs, wondrous; In the air; on land; and in the ocean depths; Life ever cycles thru births and deaths.
About the Author: Feliciano Bantilan earned his AB Philosophy from St Francis Xavier Major Seminary, Davao City, Philippines. After his MS Physics from University of the Philippines at Diliman, Quezon City, he went to the USA on fellowship to pursue a PhD in Physics. He obtained his PhD in Physics from Duke University in 1983. He returned to his country and taught Physics at the University of the Philippines at Los Banos. Then, a bombshell dropped on his life: Parkinson's disease in 2002. The lowest point in his struggle with Parkinson's occurred in 2006, when his mobility was so impaired, he no longer could raise himself up on bed to sleep. He slept on a mattress spread on the floor. He would have episodes of near panic, due to difficulty breathing. Then, by a stroke of luck, still with severe movement difficulty--only a finger in his left hand could press keys of his laptop--he chanced upon the website of Dr Amy Yasko. A year and three months into her protocol, he began to get back some of his mobility, as well as some of his "brain". And something more: all of a sudden, he began to think in verse. He enjoyed reading and reciting poetry since he was young. However, he never composed a poem in his life, until his partial recovery. At age sixty-five, he began writing poetry. The first two poems he composed make up his first book, Einstein in Verse: Introduction to Special and General Relativity. The rest forms the content of this book, his second, Life in Poetry: The Evolutionary 'Garden of Eden'.