Time can only go forwards, <br />It may not pause; <br />It may not retrace its steps; <br />It may not speed up; <br />It may not slow down; <br />It is a one-dimensional direction; <br />To travel backwards in time <br /> is a paradox, and impossible; <br />Likewise to travel faster than it, <br />Likewise slower, <br />Likewise without it, <br />Likewise independent of it; <br />To travel within time would require another time, <br />Such as we have not; <br />Therefore it is impossible. <br />We are constrained by time, <br />Likewise by space, <br />Likewise by our own bodies. <br />Time permeates creation, <br />As does space. <br />Time seems to us to be infinite; <br />It may be, <br />But yet probably is not, <br />No more than space. <br />We cannot imagine <br /> (in our waking hours) <br />A timeless space, <br />Nor yet a spaceless time, <br />Nor timeless time, <br />Nor yet a spaceless place; <br />For we think but as men, and not as God. <br />There may be stuff not in this universe, <br />Not material, or perhaps so. <br />Yet there is only one universe. <br />Hereafter is no time, <br />And perhaps no space. <br />We have not much time here. <br /> <br />(Sunday,20th March,2005) .<br /><br />David Mitchell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/time-13/
