How does Nature Create such Beauty Out of Chaos?

John H Reif

The laws of entropy dictate that

all the complex structures of the natural world

must inevitably disintegrate.

And so the noble forest

with soaring cathedrals of limbs,

tapestries of roots and

finely wrought leaves

must in the end be reduced to a dusty mulch.

But then why is it that life seems to so flagrantly disregard this law,

creating levels of marvelous complexity

from organic molecules to cellular structures and on to entire organisms

and ultimately to humans and their civilizations,

all while apparently while obeying the same natural laws

that science says must yield to the chaos

which is entropy’s inevitable consequence.

So why am I here and not dust ?