Powers of Ten Complete Text Edited April 2007

POWERS OF TEN

A Science Oratorioby

David Haines

PART ONE“The Journey Down the Magnitudes”

BOY [spoken]It was an ordinary sunny summer day on the beach. My sister was sitting, gazing out to sea, mind on another planet as usual. I was sifting sand through my fingers, wandering what the grains were made of and how they’d look if I was the size of an ant.

CHORUSThe waves roll, the breeze blows, a turbulent river of sand flows

The sun in an azure sky glows golden, glows goldenSeagulls drift in a cloud-racing sky

Calling loud in a language no human knows... no human knowsThe sun in an azure sky golden glows, golden glows...

From the shore come the sounds of childrenLaughing, shouting and calling out, calling...

They take joy in a universe filled with mysteries, wondersBeautiful, dangerous, strange...

Waves roll, breeze blows, sand flows, sun gold glows...

BOY [spoken]I saw the grains of sand flow from my hand between my fingers.The rushing of the waves, the crying of the gulls and the joyful shouting of the children all around me became dim and muffled.It was as though my mind had become a microscope and as I gazed down at my hand, my fingers burst into song!

CHORUS OF FINGERSTen fingers, including two opposable thumbs - we are the secret of your dexterity

One two three four five six seven eight nineTen fingers, we friendly digits help with your sums

We are the secret of your math’matical ability

We chipped those ancient flints to make your stone toolsWe painted animals on cave walls

We shaped your very first clay potsWe made the fire that kept you hot on those long, cold ice-age nights

We gave you heat and we gave you light

Ten fingers, including two opposable thumbs - we are the secret of your dexterityOne two three four five six seven eight nine

Ten fingers, we friendly digits help with your sumsWe are the secret of your math’matical ability

We play arpeggios upon pianos, tear-jerking melodies on oboesWe save the lives of mountaineers, stroke away pain and wipe away tears

Flying through the air as swift as humming birdsWe express so eloquently thoughts and words

- - - - 1 - - - -Powers of Ten Script 8th March 1999

Ten fingers emerging from a flexible palmAttached by tendons to muscles in your armOne two three four five six sev’n eight nine

Ten fingers, we led you down that decimal pathThe number twelve would have been a better base by far!

BOY [spoken over music]What are you talking about?

FINGER 1 [spoken over music]Why do you think our number system’s based on ten?

BOY [spoken over music]Because we’ve got ten fingers, I suppose.

FINGER 2 [spoken over music]But think what an awkward number ten is!

BOY [spoken over music]Seems all right to me. What’s wrong with it?

FINGER 3 [spoken over music]What numbers can you divide ten by without getting a fraction in the answer?

BOY [spoken over music]That’s easy - two and five

FINGER 4 [spoken over music]Don’t forget one and tenBOY [spoken over music]That goes without saying

FINGER 5 [spoken over music]Now - what numbers can you divide twelve by and get a whole number?

BOY [spoken over music]One......two......three......four......six.....twelve!

ALL THE FINGERS [spoken over music]Exactly!

FINGER 6 [spoken over music]With base 12, mathematics would be much simpler.

FINGER 7 [spoken over music]And it’s all our fault that humans chose base ten

FINGER 8 [spoken over music]Just because there’s ten of us!FINGER 9 [spoken over music]Please accept our apologies!

BOY [spoken over music]Okay!

FINGER 10 [spoken over music]Thanks! I suppose we have our uses all the same....

CHORUS OF FINGERSWe point at galaxies, planets and stars

We solder circuit boards to guide spacecraftTaking explorers worlds away, pushing horizons day by day

One day in the future, and it’s not too farWe’ll be sifting crimson sand from the deserts of Mars....

Ten fingers - we are the most adaptable toolWithout us would you humans ever have evolved at all?

One, two, three, four, five, six, sev’n, eight, nineTen fingers, pinkie, ring, middle, index, thumb

One, two, three, four, five, six, sev’n, eight, nine


Ten fingers, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one!

[spoken in rhythm with appropriate gestures]Link, think, scratch, match, okay! no way!

Come, go! Stretch, curl, slap and click, pinch and pay!Hitch-hike, point, strangle, stroke - gimme five! tickle and poke

Pick, flick, dip, lick, twiddle and fiddle, tear and stick!Ten fingers...

BOY [spoken]As the song ended, my fingers turned back into normal wiggly bits on the ends of my hands. I heaved a sigh of relief tinged with disappointment. Then my vision blurred again, and I realised I was focusing in closer and closer upon my skin. There were creatures running about and shouting to me....

THE LIFE THAT LIVES ON MANGROUP OF LICE [spoken over music]

Good day! The name’s Pediculus humanus - but you can call us head louse!We know we’re not popular with you humans, but let us tell you about our great great great great grandmother!

She lived in Heindenburg in Sweden. The Heindenburgers had a fine and sensible way of choosing their town mayor each year.

All the old men would sit around a table with their long beards touching the table top. Then my noble ancestor would be placed in the middle of the table.

Whichever beard she chose to climb - that man became mayor. They appreciated our talents in the good old days!

CHORUS OF PARASITESFrom the humid jungle of your armpits

To the arid desert on the back of your handIn the temperate forest on the top of your head

We’re the life that lives on manFrom the cosy tunnel of your eyelash

To the saline marshland of your hillocky tongueIn the nourishing wax of your cavernous ear

We’re the life that lives on manWe’re the life that lives on manWe’re the life that lives on manWe’re the life that lives on man

GROUP OF FLEAS [spoken over music]Hello! My name’s Pulex Irritans. You’d call me a human flea, but I’m just as happy living on a a badger or a pig!

I had a yummy dinner off you earlier. I stabbed you with my spears then spat saliva into you to stop your blood clotting.

Then I stuck a third spear into you to make a kind of tube. Then I sucked up lots of loverly blood! Mmmmm.....

CHORUS OF PARASITES


From the humid jungle of your armpitsTo the arid desert on the back of your hand

In the temperate forest on the top of your headWe’re the life that lives on man

From the cosy tunnel of your eyelashTo the saline marshland of your hillocky tongue

In the nourishing wax of your cavernous earWe’re the life that lives on manWe’re the life that lives on manWe’re the life that lives on manWe’re the life that lives on man

GROUP OF FOLLICLE MITES [spoken over music]Yoohoooo!! I’m Demodex, your friendly follicle mite. I make a cosy home inside your eyelash follicles.

We’re so small that a family of twenty can live inside a single one of your eyelash roots.

Mind you, we do wish you’d use eye make-up. It’s so delicious and nourishing and we could have lots more babies if you did! Please dooooooo......

CHORUS OF PARASITESFrom the humid jungle of your armpits

To the arid desert on the back of your handIn the temperate forest on the top of your head

We’re the life that lives on manFrom the cosy tunnel of your eyelash

To the saline marshland of your hillocky tongueIn the nourishing wax of your cavernous ear

We’re the life that lives on manWe’re the life that lives on manWe’re the life that lives on manWe’re the life that lives on man


BOY [spoken]I waved a reluctant goodbye to those cheery parasites, then felt myself growing smaller and smaller. Suddenly a group of slimy blobs came into view....

CHORUS OF AMOEBAEDon’t look down, don’t look down your nose at me

I may be just a single-celled amoeba, but I can do things you only dream about...When I choose on a wish or whim to move

I grow a new limb then I flow into my pseudopod, you may find it odd butWe amoebae, we believe we are the coolest protoplasm in town

We’re the coolest protozoans around...What’s so great about being the same shape from day to day?

What a boring way to live, always the same face in the same placeCan’t change shape from a naked ape!

I would sob with misery if I couldn’t be a blob like me, soWhat’s so great about being the same shape from day to day? From day to day?

Don’t ignore, don’t ignore me ‘cause I’m smallI may be shapeless jelly and slimy, you think I’m insignificant, tiny

I’ll tell you what a gobbet of slime can do!When I feel I could eat a hearty meal

I find some mould or anything oldI grow pseudopods and wrap up the lot in my new legs

I engulf it then I wolf it down! I engulf my dinner then wolf it down!

What’s so great about being the same shape from day to day?What a boring way to live, always the same face in the same place

Can’t change shape from a naked ape!I would sob with misery if I couldn’t be a blob like me, so

What’s so great about being the same shape from day to day? From day to day?

Don’t dismiss, don’t you dismiss this protistIt’s true that most Protista don’t wish to do any harm but, Mister,

You’d be wise to despiseEntomoeba Hystolytica, Entomoeba HystolyticaThis guy is the meanest amoeba by a long chalk

Don’t allow entry to this amoeba, you will get dysentry, maybe feverEntomoeba Hystolytica, Entomoeba Hystolytica

You could be a “Mister Sick-as-a-Parrot”!

What’s so great about being the same shape from day to day?What a boring way to live, always the same face in the same place

Can’t change shape from a naked ape!I would sob with misery if I couldn’t be a blob like me, so

What’s so great about being the same shape from day to day? From day to day?

BOYAnd still the microscope in my mind took me closer and closer until I could see the strange world of the bacteria...

- - - - INSTRUMENTAL or NEW SONG YET TO BE WRITTEN - BACTERIA - - - -

BOY [spoken]


But even the bacteria weren’t the smallest scale of life. I travelled down another magnitude and came across the world of the virus. But was it really alive?

THE VIRUSWithout you I am nothing at all, I’m just a bundle of proteins, not even living

Until you take me into your body, let me into you cells, I’m not aliveYou are my home, you are my route to life

You let me live in your cells where I can copy myDeoxyribonucleic acid, deoxyribonucleic acid

D.N.A.!

When I was sneezed out of somebody’s noseI was a bundle of proteins, not even living

Then you breathed me right into your body, let me into your cells, now I’m alive!Your body’s cells take orders from your genes

But now they’re learning to make perfect copies ofMy deoxyribonucleic acid, my deoxyribonucleic acid

D.N.A.!

Before you there was just one of me, I was a bundle of proteins, not even livingThen you donated me the use of your cells so I could multiply thousands of times

You wrapped my babies up in nasal slimeYou sneezed it out into the air spreading copies of

My deoxyribonucleic acid, my deoxyribonucleic acidD.N.A.!

I want to thank you for all that you’ve done, it’s been a bundle of funYou’ve done your utmost to help me spread my D.N.A. all around, now please

Please will you sneeze me out? - I want a new host!

BOY [spoken]The viruses couldn’t quite decide whether they were alive or not, but in my journey down the magnitudes I found myself crossing the boundary into the world of the non-living - the single molecule. And a very special molecule at that. A molecule that has made life on Earth possible.

MIRACLE MOLECULE[sung by soloists]

One oxygen, two hydrogenLocked together in a miracle molecule [repeat ad lib]

[whispered by chorus or soloists]Ice... ocean... cloud... river...

Tears... rain... aquifer...Puddle... brook... pond... lake...

Sweat... glacier... snowflake... [repeat ad lib]

BOY [spoken]As I drew nearer, even the molecule became like a great building and I began to see the individual atoms with their clouds of electrons whizzing round like a swarm of tiny insects.

- - - - INSTRUMENTAL or NEW SONG YET TO BE WRITTEN - ELECTRONS IN ORBIT - - - -


BOYAs I shrank down below the size of an atom, I met the three quarks that make a single neutron - three quarks that can never be split apart.... or almost never……

CHARMED QUARKMy baby is a charmed quark, how delightful when you’re feeling downOnly trouble with a quark’s life, always another quark hanging aroundMy baby is a charmed quark, how delightful when you’re feeling down

The only trouble with a quark’s life, always another quark hanging around

If we could get away from this neutron starMaybe there’s a way I could become an antiquark

We’d make a meson particle and never changeDown quark, antiquark, strange, down quark, antiquark, strange

My baby is a charmed quark, how we long to be a loving pair....But just when we think we’ve made it, we look around and there’s another there

My baby is a charmed quark, we’re imprisoned in this neutron starJust want to be alone together, but you know what neutrons are...

One up quark, one down, but then another quark hanging aroundOne up quark, one down, but then another quark hanging around

Always another quark hanging around, never alone

My baby is a charmed quark, how delightful when you’re feeling downOnly trouble with a quark’s life, always another quark hanging aroundMy baby is a charmed quark, how delightful when you’re feeling down

The only trouble with a quark’s life, always another quark hanging around

If we could get away from this neutron starMaybe there’s a way I could become an antiquark

We’d make a meson particle and never changeDown quark, antiquark, strange, down quark, antiquark, strange

Up up down, up down strangeDown up down, down down strange...

BOY [spoken]The rest of my journey down the magnitudes was like a dream in which nothing was real but everything was possible. Photons skittered about me, particles one moment, waves the next. Time and space became all muddled up and wormholes kept popping up out of nowhere. I blew down one and felt my own breath down my own neck a minute earlier. I was in the fantastic world of the quantum.

- - - - INSTRUMENTAL or NEW SONG YET TO BE WRITTEN - QUANTUM DYNAMICS - - - -

BOY [spoken]I had reached the end of my journey down the magnitudes. I found myself flying backwards up the many scales of size I had explored. Up past the romantic quarks, that grateful virus, those proud amoebae, those weird parasites living on my body and those mathematical fingers. Back up to my full size, back to the warm, noisy beach and the sound of the rolling waves. But after what I’d seen of the universe at the scales of magnitude smaller than me, I would always see the world in a different way.



PART TWO

“The Journey Up the Magnitudes”

GIRL [spoken]It was an ordinary sunny summer day on the beach. My brother was in a trance, fascinated by grains of sand. I was gazing out to sea, into that place where the sky merges mysteriously with the ocean...

THE BEACH (reprise)The waves roll, the breeze blows, a turbulent river of sand flows

The sun in an azure sky glows golden, glows goldenSeagulls drift in a cloud-racing sky

Calling loud in a language no human knows... no human knowsThe sun in an azure sky golden glows, golden glows...

From the shore come the sounds of childrenLaughing, shouting and calling out, calling...

They take joy in a universe filled with mysteries, wondersBeautiful, dangerous, strange...

Waves roll, breeze blows, sand flows, sun gold glows...

GIRL [spoken]I was thinking about nothing in particular when suddenly - for no reason I could think of - I remembered something I’d seen that morning, as I came out of the house. Just as I shut the garden gate I noticed next door’s curtains twitch. I smiled and wondered why our neighbour is so secretive about being interested in what people are doing. It’s just human nature to be interested in other people, isn’t it?

CHORUS OF NOSEY NEIGHBOURSHow my kitchen floor needs cleaning!

I’ve been meaning to tackle it for weeks with bucket and mopHow my garden beds need weeding, weeds are breeding

If I don’t attack them they will never ever stopPiles of washing up are growing

I’ve been storing dirty pans and pots in cupboards and on floorsI can’t justify the time to dust dead flies and spiders

From window sills and those bits above my doorsWhenever I intend to do my housework I plug my vacuum cleaner in the wall

My heart is filled with pride and with joy - I fit the cobweb-removing tool

[spoken over music]Then I think “Before I start I’ll just take a quick peek to see what’s happening out the front.” I carefully pull back the net curtain just an inch or two and then....

[sung]Mrs Jones is talking to a man in uniform

I wonder where he’s from, she’s looking quite forlornThere’s a delivery at number eight

I hope they’re out, I can offer to take that parcel inThen me and the dog can spend a merry afternoon

Guessing what they’ve got from the catalogue

Twitchy curtains, my reason for living, twitchy curtains, much better than TVTwitchy curtains, the reason for curtains is for peering between


And seeing what my beady little eye can seeTwitchy curtains, my one and only past-time, twitchy curtains, see what they

revealTwitchy curtains, the story lines are gripping and the best bit of all

I know the drama of my neighbours’ lives is real

Juliet next door is going out with her young manIs it him she likes or is it his red Lamborghini? Woops! She’s seen me!

What’s that old codger doing at number ten?Trimming his hedge into the shape of a hen

He’s got a thing about topiary, he’s got a pig, a dog, a cat and monkeyPrivet menagerie!

Twitchy curtains, my reason for living, twitchy curtains, much better than TVTwitchy curtains, the reason for curtains is for peering between

And seeing what my beady little eye can seeTwitchy curtains, my one and only past-time, twitchy curtains, see what they

revealTwitchy curtains, the story lines are gripping and the best bit of all

I know the drama of my neighbours’ lives is real

GIRL [spoken]Suddenly I felt I was flying over the town and out above the countryside. I could see the primroses growing along the edges of the lanes, I could see woods carpeted with bluebells and green fields dotted with daisies and buttercups...

CHORUS OF FLOWER FANCIERSDon’t pick the daisies, don’t pick the buttercups

When you go strolling please don’t you pick or cutOnce the countryside has died away there won’t be another chance

There won’t be another day, there won’t be another flower...

Don’t pick the daisies, don’t pick the buttercupsIf you like flowers, take a book and look them up

Leave them growing for your friends to seeFlowers don’t look very fine sad and drooping in your house or mine...

I’m daisy crazy, I’m up on buttercupsOrchids amaze me, my heart goes flitter-flut

Even lowly chickweed has its charmsWhen I see a boy or girl with a thousand bluebells in their arms

It makes me angry...

Don’t pick the daisies, don’t pick the buttercupsWhen you go strolling please don’t you pick or cut

Once the countryside has died away there won’t be another chanceThere won’t be another day, there won’t be another flower

Ever again......ever again......ever again.......

GIRL [spoken]I flew higher and higher until I could see for miles and miles. A great river shone in the sunlight below me and seemed to take on a personality of its own, telling

me the strange story of its long life...

SONG OF THE TAMAR VALLEY


Sleeping for a billion years down below the ocean waves (x2)Feel the sands of time building up towards the golden sun (x2)

Volcanic magma from my heart of flameVolcanic magma flows into my rocky veins (x2)

Who is that a-scratching at my skin? Who is knocking at my dreams? (x2)Who is cutting into my frozen veins, digging down towards my heart? (x2)

What will you find there? What will you do?How will you mend the scars you will leave behind you? (x2)

In this flash of time you’ve taken all those precious treasures you could find (x2)I have many treasures more hidden deep below where people cannot go (x2)

See how the power of nature repairs the damage you have doneThere will be no sign that you were ever there (x4)

[There is also a “slow refrain” which is sung as a counter-melody to each main refrain]

SLOW REFRAIN (REPEATED AS NECESSARY)Tamar River flowing down the centuries

GIRL [spoken]As I flew higher I could see whole continents at a glance. But stranger still I could see long aeons of time played out before my eyes. I watched as the continents

danced their slow tectonic waltz over the surface of the Earth...

TECTONIC WALTZThe dance of the continents all round the world

Tectonic waltz, tectonic waltzColliding and splitting, sinking and rising

Tectonic waltz, tectonic waltzOnce, long ago, we were all joined togetherAll the world’s land in the one land, PangaeaWe were the Earth’s one and only continentSurrounded by ocean, the great Panthalassa

The dance of the continents all round the worldTectonic waltz, tectonic waltz

Colliding and splitting, sinking and risingTectonic waltz, tectonic waltz

Then we divided into two vast islandsGondwanaland and the land of Laurasia

These two great continents drifted, dividedNow we are six, but the dance still continues

The dance of the continents all round the worldTectonic waltz, tectonic waltz

Colliding and splitting, sinking and risingTectonic waltz, tectonic waltzTectonic waltz, tectonic waltzTectonic waltz, tectonic waltz

GIRL [spoken]


But I sped faster and faster into space until I could see the whole blue ball of Earth floating in the blackness before me...

COMMUNITY CHOIRPlanet Earth like a jewel in the dark

Planet Earth, the cradle of lifePlanet Earth, blue and green in the blackness

Planet Earth, our only homeNow I see Planet Earth in a new way

So alone in the vastness of spacePlanet Earth, so small and so fragile

Planet Earth, no longer invulnerable [repeat]

SOLO SOPRANO [counter melody above choir]Turning, spinning, through the dark universe...Turning, spinning through the dark universe....

Our Planet Earth is an island of life so small and vulnerable

GIRL [spoken]Moments later I seemed to be standing on the silent surface of our moon...

COOL MOONNo flowers, no trees, no water in the dusty seas

No clouds in the sky, nothing ever lives, nothing diesNo air, no sound, no breezes blowing leaves across the ground

No joy, no fear, nobody there to shed a tearOn the moon... (x8) [repeat whole song]

GIRLBut that wasn’t to be the end of my strange journey - not by far. The next stage

took me ninety-three million miles....

CHORUS OF SUN LOVERSNinety-three million miles away

That’s how far the sun’s away that gives us light and warms the dayNinety-three million miles or so

That ain’t a long way for the light to goRiding on a light beam if we could it wouldn’t take us very long

Riding on a light beam we’d be there by the timeWe’d finished singing this song if we took it slowly...

Ninety-three million miles awayThat’s how far the sun’s away that gives us light and warms the day

Ninety-three million miles or soThat ain’t a long way for the light to go

If the sun went out we’d not last long, we couldn’t live without its glowBut that isn’t very likely ‘cause the sun’s quite young

It’s got another six billion years or so to go...

Ninety-three million miles awayThat’s how far the sun’s away that gives us light and warms the day

Ninety-three million miles or soThat ain’t a long way for the light to go

Is it waves, is it particles? Nobody quite knowsIt’s the ultimate speed limit anything can go


At a million miles every five seconds, no,It ain’t a long way for the light... to...

Go to go to go, go to go to go, go to go to go, go to go to go, GO!

GIRL [spoken]I whizzed past the sun and whirled up into space were I could see the whole solar system laid out below me. But which planet was which? I never could remember.

EIGHT PLANETS [sung as a round]Eight planets orbiting the sun - What are their names, one by one?

Mercury is the first we seeVenus second and the Earth makes three and then there’s

Mars, Mars, the god of war - Jupiter and Saturn make one, two moreUranus is the seventh planet - Neptune is last and completes the set [rpt]

Eight planets orbiting the sun - What are their names, one by one? [rpt]

GIRL [spoken]Soon the planets had faded from view and even the sun was just one point of light in that magical pattern of a million stars...

STARGAZINGWhen skies are clear and I can see the stars

I seek a place where I can be aloneThen I am just a fleeting thought in a random universe

This is the greatest feeling that I know

When I lie down beneath the spring-time skyCounting the shooting stars that stream across the night

The ups and downs of this small world are dissolved in children’s dreamsThis is the greatest feeling that I know


See how the planets circle in the voidAs we perform our petty dances here below

We could burn our Earth to smoke and ash and the moon would shed no tearsThis is the greatest feeling that I know

GIRL [spoken]As I sped through space a great red star loomed up before me, its surface churning and roaring like a stormy ocean of flame...

RED GIANT[Melody 2 group]

Red giant in black, black skyMight any moment blow sky high

Red giant is a time bombSupernova might be coming

Let’s be gone!

[Melody 1 group]When a star is very old

It swells up big, gets relatively coldThen at any time explodes

Into a supernova!

[Then the two sets of words are sung simultaneously]

GIRL [spoken]The explosion of the Red Giant into a supernova was frightening enough but now I began to fear that this precipitous journey through space might take me into the heart of the scariest object in the cosmos - a Black Hole!

THE BLACK HOLEDon’t take me near that black, black hole

Don’t take me near to that placeIf you go there leave me at homeI’m too young to die in space...

Once you’re near to that hole there’s no resisting its pullSo, if you’re determined to still go there

Go there alone, you mad fool

Picture a star so big and old it can’t support its own weightShrinks and collapses into a hole, an irreversible fate...

Gets so small it ain’t there, just gravitational pullSo, if you’re determined to still go there

Go there alone, you mad fool

*As you get nearer you’ll fall and you’ll fall, faster and faster you’ll goAs you approach velocity of light time will slow down and will grind to a halt

So... don’t send a postcard ‘cause it won’t comeEven first class post won’t get here

Don’t try to phone, you won’t get through, not in a billion yearsNow listen, vacuum cleaners can’t compete with what that black hole can do

It swallows electromagnetic waves and soon it will swallow you!


[*repeat from “as you get nearer” to the end]

GIRL [spoken]But no Black Hole was to swallow me up. As I sped out into the universe at impossible speeds I glimpsed the great turning wheel of the Milky Way, spinning in the vast emptiness of the cosmos. Soon even the galaxies and the clusters of galaxies were like specks of dust on a sheet of black velvet. At last I realised how empty the universe really is.

FINALE[Dawlish Community College]

Turning, spinning, through the dark universe...Turning, spinning, through the dark universe...

Our Milky Way of a hundred billion starsIs a speck of dust in a cloud of a hundred billion galaxies


[Soloists]When skies are clear and I can see the stars

I seek a place where I can be aloneThen I am just a fleeting thought in a random universe


[Chorus]When I lie down beneath the spring-time sky

Counting the shooting stars that stream across the nightThe ups and downs of this small world are dissolved in children’s dreams


See how the planets circle in the voidAs we perform our petty dances here below

We could burn our Earth to smoke and ash and the moon would shed no tearsThis is the greatest feeling that I know

[As the chorus sing the above 2 verses, the community choir sing the words previously sung by DCC choir and shown below...]

[Community Choir]Turning, spinning, through the dark universe...Turning, spinning, through the dark universe...

Our Milky Way of a hundred billion starsIs a speck of dust in a cloud of a hundred billion galaxies



GIRLThen suddenly I was back in the world of the beach, the sun, the sea, and the voices of children. My brother was still gazing at his handful of sand. He’d never believe the journey I’d just been on. My whirlwind tour of the universe will change the way I see the world forever.

[Melody 1 group]*The waves roll, the breeze blows

A turbulent river of sand flowsThe sun in an azure sky glows golden, glows golden

[Melody 2 group]*Seagulls drift in a cloud-racing sky

Calling loud in a language no human knows, no human knowsThe sun in an azure sky golden glows, golden glows

[Melody 1 & 2]From the shore come the sounds of children

Laughing, shouting and calling outThey take joy in a universe filled with mysteries, wonders

Beautiful, dangerous, strange...

[Community Choir]*Waves roll, breeze blows, sand flows, sun gold glows

*[The song ends with these three sections combined]

THE END


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Powers of Ten Complete Text Edited April 2007