The Ordovician began
With great extinction's plan—
Or did it? Sages still debate
What caused that fearsome fate.
Were these great ghosts real
With power none could feel
Beyond belief so strong,
Or myths that passed along?
The Sages cannot agree
On what they claim to see
In mists of ancient time
Where truth and myth combine.
After the mists cleared
And new dawn appeared,
The world was greater still
Than any mortal will
Could have imagined then.
The Planktonic Planimals when
They fed brought forth new life
Through harmony, not strife.
Leviathan arose,
Great dragon, friend not foes.
Son of wicked king Magog,
He ruled through wisdom's log.
Though born of evil seed,
Leviathan would lead
His kingdom not to war
But peace forevermore.
To peaceful prosperity
His realm in clarity
Grew under his wise rule
Like some divine school.
The sons of Leviathan
Grew greater than began
Any before their time:
Tenscore myriads prime
Of microns was their length.
Their body politic's strength
Was great and full of power
Through every passing hour.
His sons inherited
The greatness that was bred
Into their very souls
To play their vital roles.
The sons of Leviathan ruled
The world, and never fooled
By power's corruption,
They brought life's construction
With justice great and true.
They shepherded all who
Were sons of Bios fair
With love and gentle care.
From small planktonic ones
To vicious warrior sons—
The Anomalocarids—
All felt their benefits.
Ordovices the son
Of Leviathan begun
The greatest reign of all
When he would hear the call
To be Emperor supreme.
He built beyond all dream
Great cities of such fame
That "reefs" became their name.
And so economy
Grew in harmony
Like never seen before
From mountain peak to shore.
In great Coral cities
Where beauty never pities
Those who cannot see
Their vast complexity,
The sons of Euka came
From places without name
Far and wide they traveled
As mysteries unraveled.
Ordovices put to work
The sons of Cnider (perk
Of wisdom's gentle hand)
Throughout his peaceful land.
And so the sons of Anthus
Built cities, cantus
Of beauty rising high
Beneath the ocean sky.
Ordovices had daughters
Of Coraline build waters
Into living stone—
She, daughter all her own
Of Florida, who came
From Rhodes of ancient name.
They built coralline Algae,
The plaster, galaxy
Upon the great Corals.
Their work through all portals
Of time would long endure
With beauty clean and pure.
Ordovices saw clear
That sons of Bryos here
Had no home to call
Their own, and heard their call.
And so he blessed them well
With homes where they could dwell
Within the great reefs bright
Both day and through the night.
To this day reefs stand
As monuments so grand
Of Ordovices' art
That built with gentle heart
The most prosperous cities
Where life shows no pities
For those who cannot see
Their vast complexity.
On Terra and beyond
These reefs form the bond
Between all living things
That peace and order brings.
The coral cities rise
Beneath the ocean skies
With architecture fine
Both humble and divine.
In every coral branch
And every firm stanch
Foundation built with care
Lives beauty everywhere.
The shoals of fish so bright
Dance in the crystal light
That filters through the reef
Beyond all belief.
Each creature has its place
Within this living space
Where harmony is law
Without the slightest flaw.
The algae and the coral
Live in ways most moral,
Each helping other grow
In partnership's flow.
The Bryozoans small
Build cities, one and all,
Upon the coral's frame
To share in nature's game.
The fish find shelter here
From predators they fear,
While hunters find their prey
Throughout the night and day.
And so economy
Grew in perfect harmony
Under wise Ordovices
Whose rule brought life its prizes.
He became known through time
As "Ordovices the Prime"
Of wisdom, and his boom
Dispelled all sense of doom
That hung over the past
When extinctions last
Had threatened life with death
And stole away its breath.
This boom became the name
Of GOBE—greatest fame
The Great Ordovician
Event, magician
Of biodiversity
That brought complexity
Beyond what was before
To every sea and shore.
The life within the seas
Became what always pleased
The heart that loves to see
Life's creativity.
More prosperous it grew
With species old and new
Finding their perfect place
In evolution's race.
And it would only grow
Greater, as we know,
More prosperous and bright
Under Ordovician might.
Under the great dynasty
Of wisdom's sovereignty
'Twas the first Golden Age
In life's eternal page.
The reefs became the heart
Of nature's living art
Where beauty and function
Met in perfect junction.
From Leviathan's wise choice
To let peace be his voice
Instead of war and strife
Came this abundant life.
His son Ordovices
Built cities that are prizes
Still today we see
In reef's complexity.
The coral and the stone,
Each species on its own
Yet working as a whole
To play its vital role,
Show us how to build
Communities that yield
Prosperity for all
Who answer wisdom's call.
In every living reef
Beyond all belief
We see the legacy
Of this great dynasty
That chose to build, not break,
For all life's sake
A world where every creature
Has its special feature
And role to play within
The symphony therein
Of life in all its forms
Through calm and raging storms.
The Ordovician way
Lives on to this day
In every coral city
Both grand and gritty
That rises from the sea
In perfect harmony
Of form and function blessed
By wisdom's gentle rest.
From Leviathan's peace
To reefs that never cease
To grow in beauty bright,
We see that might
Is not in conquest's sword
But in the gentle word
That builds instead methodically
That tears so wreck systematically.
The first Golden Age
Wrote upon history's page
The lesson clear and true:
That what we choose to do
With power in our hands
Determines if the lands
And seas will flourish well
Or under curses dwell.
Ordovices chose to build
And his wisdom filled
The world with life so bright
It still brings us delight.
In every coral's growth
And every sacred oath
To build and not destroy,
We find life's truest joy.
The Great Ordovician
Biodiversification
Event shows what can come
When wisdom's ways we sum
Into our daily choice
To let peace be our voice
And building be our art
With love within our heart.
The reefs that grow today
In their prosperous way
Are children of that time
When reason was in rhyme
With nature's deepest law:
That beauty without flaw
Comes not from force and might
But from love's gentle sight
That sees in every creature
A perfect, special feature
Worth protecting well
As stories always tell
Of Leviathan's son
Whose work is never done
As long as reefs still grow
In beauty's endless flow.