Do you wonder about humankind? You should. We are a marvel—a species possessing abilities far beyond mere survival. We create art. We contemplate beauty. We wrestle with questions of right and wrong.
This poem explores those mysteries through verse. It asks: Where does our sense of beauty come from? Why do we feel the pull of ethics? Philosophy has long pondered these questions, but there’s a story rarely told—the story written in bones and ancient stones, in seven million years of evolution that shaped not just our bodies, but our very capacity to perceive truth, beauty, and goodness.
This is an unusual poem. It interweaves hominin paleoanthropology with philosophy, tracing how our evolutionary journey created our aesthetic and ethical nature. The verses that follow reveal how what we were made us what we are.
A VERSE THAT GUIDES THE JOURNEY
Glance on a page can be a way to see
Lofty it can be like an odyssey
A want beyond the horizon to sail
Even when tacking through a windward gale
The gust of the wind be what tells the tale
What is to glean from the tack you are on?
From those ancestors who are long bygone
Truth, beauty and The Good be the beacon
THE MYSTERY OF THE WILL
Life’s conscious purpose held at a distance
Peaks the wonderment of our existence
Purpose absent remains a world absurd
Nonetheless, life’s purpose yet to be heard
Still transcending, survival is the word
A portent penned at the tip of God’s quill
What ancient forces silently instill?
A guide to the mystery of The Will
TRUTH’S SACRED CLAIM
It behooves to admit with persistence
Condemned to the past is our existence
When speaking first arose, we can suppose
It impelled a sense of truth to oppose
The birth of our language being deposed
Lessen the coin of communication
It is thus, begone all information
While tearing the fabric of a nation
Throughout the land the voices are calling
Warning mankind of future’s befalling
Venerate the truth the callers forewarn
Ignoring the call spurs countless to mourn
A shameless anima will raise ire’s scorn
To the past information is fated
Only bygone’s truth when clearly stated
Enables life’s future safely aided.
THE FORK IN THE ROAD
Those years ago main be the episode
Whence journeyed upon a fork in the road
Common the primate ancestor diverged
From this shared root we and they first emerged
T’was selection of fitness nature urged
One winding path to those of Pan did lead
The other path, bipedal was the creed
It was the path of Pan that remained treed
FOSSILS: OUR STORY IN STONE
Long ago since seven million years past
Bones of early bipeds on land were cast
By these bones of old, a story is told
Over the years shaped as a plaster mold
Each mold unfolds a tale worth more than gold
Uncovered the stone bones provide the clue
Of those extinct and the few who ensue
Those precious stones sparkle of me and you
EMERGENCE OF EAST AFRICAN HOMININS
Six million years ago not near foregone
Semi-arboreal those times bygone
As hominins were selected to hold sway
It was ascending that held threats at bay
Not yet on the pedal path of today
Ambling at risk lest a rescuing tree
The land rendered fare without guarantee
Too slow were the amblers by foot to flee
HOMO ERGASTER
There be a biped nobly standing tall
Kindred be its physique in body all
It was when bipeds obtained the notion
To start to walk like us with devotion
Obligatory the locomotion
Extant in the midst of the Pleistocene
Lakhs of years ago, not less than nineteen
Of East, divergent toes no longer seen
Doubt not the crucial test be survival
Possessing genes to defeat all rivals
Behold in wonderment this erectus
So much like us it seems miraculous
Whose shadow casts longer than habilis
Ergaster be kin brings no damnation
Life’s forms be not a state of stagnation
Probes the belief of recent creation
DAWN’S RELIEF
Melancholy is continuous stress
Killing one with certainty none the less
The coal black of the night is far from brief
Necessary the care of night’s relief
Promptly the rising sun subsides the grief
Fear replaced by the feel of morning’s dew
As if a painting with a mellow hue,
So good it is to see the landscape’s view
Better to see the evening’s rising sphere
That night lamp that makes the shadowy clear
Thin the arc of light at first glimpse glowing
Silently leaving the earth while growing
Lovely the orange disc when all showing
Mellow the evening light throughout the night
Slowly sinking to earth at sun’s first sight
Wonderful the comfort of light to light
AESTHETICS OF HUMAN FORM
When voluptuous lust is enduring
Upon viewing a figure alluring
Like the heat of a coal fired furnace
White hot the luscious feeling in earnest
Impromptu it arises within us
Covet’s genetic—- far from ascetic
Despite being willingly magnetic
Such carnal cravings are not aesthetic
Love’s true joy be engaged without question
Breathtaking is love’s tender reflection
Wanting the image to a loving heart
But the aesthetic is something apart
Free of agenda when viewing life’s art
Whence be in aesthetic contemplation
Beyond libido and procreation
Whilst free of burden, pure in elation
FASHION AND COSMETICS
Fashion and cosmetics render to think
Perhaps they frequent a meaningful link
Cosmetics heighten those features derived
Wondrously masked appearing not contrive
Ebbing primitive traits that have survived
Lovely a fine quotient of waist to hips
A woman’s lipstick fashions a heart’s skip
Enticing they be, those amply curved lips
EVOLUTION AND CREED
When orating from the pulpit on high
In those cathedrals vaulted to the sky
While speaking of transgression and its cure
Or granting absolution to be pure
In harmony with nature’s overture
Evolution’s tenets without a flaw
Like religion based on natural law
Evolution as God’s Will —-frames the awe
OUR SHARED BEAUTY
Upon hearing my grandfather clock chyme
It strikes me to wondering about time
To think of primates since their beginning
With selection beyond the first inning
Will the genes we possess still be winning?
But evolution now is not the same
Controlling the genome changes the game
Will our one species uniquely remain?
Thinking of the true threat existential
Remaining one species is essential
The want of genomic modulation
Beyond evolution’s regulation
Will we sapiens remain one nation?
The ethical issue most important
Creating those we will find abhorrent
Will be dystopian and discordant
Let us close with beauty and truth lasting
Conveyed in a mode subtle for grasping
A story told featured for absorbance
Striding on two a distinct performance
Aesthetics and ethics in accordance
Important the travels we are walking
As one people gently interlocking
Revealing our care when freely talking
Enchanting it is to discern the sight
Of your figure viewed in a subtle light
How fully satisfying it can be
To dream of the sweet countenance of thee
With charming qualities for all to see
Whether I view upon thee far or near
How lovely those features I hold so dear
You be the melody I wish to hear
Sweet it was, the journey we have taken
With feelings never to be forsaken
When you are away and I am alone
Longing for the love that our hearts have shown
Only together is happiness known
Whenever I think of you night or day
Lovingly, I see virtues you portray
So beautiful you are in every way
AN INVITATION TO EXPLORE
These verses are a short sample drawn from a 1,000-line epic poem exploring the evolutionary basis of ethics and aesthetics. We believe that the rhythm and emotion of this extensive verse will foster a profound, personal understanding of these concepts. This journey is meant to be an exploration of your own deepest feelings about truth, beauty, and the good.
The core notion—that our innate sense of ethics and aesthetics are evolutionary adaptations honed by Natural Selection—is novel, powerful, and has already sparked conversation in peer-reviewed journals. It sits squarely at the crucial interface of science and the humanities. We’d love for you to join this conversation! Find your copy of A Poem of Humankind by Aphorisms and Rhyme below and contribute your insights to this evolving discussion
