The Story of the Universe was inspired by a very old idea—that the universe is one river and that galaxies, stars, planets, and people are all whirls and eddies in the universal flow, arising in the universe as naturally as whirls and eddies arise in a fast-flowing river. The universe arose once upon a time in a place that created time and space. It spread in darkness like an exploding black hole until there was light. It was pure energy in pure symmetry—almost. The imperfections weighed down upon space, gathering energy and mass into vortices, which turned into galaxies, which created stars, which created planets, which created us.
Converting the language of science into poetry, this poem is an attempt to unite religion and science using a very simple idea. We can disagree about whether the universe had a creator, but we can all agree that the universe is our creator. These verses also seek to bridge the gulf between art and science by showing that science is a rich vein of poetry for artists to mine.