ABSTRACT
What is the nature of my existence? What is the nature of existence as a whole? How on earth did I become a conscious being and how did mankind emerge on this planet? These existential questions have been with me since childhood. I remember when I was an eight year old in a house in Miramar, a little village south of Oporto, which my parents rented together with Reg and Auriel Cobb. I remember asking Reg questions like ‘Why do the stars only shine at night, Uncle Reg?’ and ‘How do fish breathe?’ and ‘Why was Jesus born in Palestine instead of Portugal?’ On and on I went till at breakfast one day Uncle Reg said, in an irritated tone, ‘Will you please stop asking questions?’ I cannot remember whether I stopped pestering him but I am glad to say that his admonition did not stop me going on asking questions and I have continued this way all my life. It is for this reason that I have always been attracted to the existential philosophers and, more recently, particularly the writings of Paul Tillich. Both these poems have that existential theme.
