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I have woven stars within my soulWith wonder and with learning.
The weft is strong, the warp is bright,
The pattern sure, the colors burning.
From age of nine the sky has beckoned
To learn of stars & spatial things. Spectras, novas, Kepler’s laws,
Tektites, umbra, cosmic strings.
Mercury, Mars, Arcturus, Vega,
Celestial equator, perigee, All lifted from pages to memory.
Redshift, Cepheid, singularity.
Sneaking my telescope down the stairs,
At 3 am to view and findOrion’s nebula, Andromeda
Each perfectly, artistically designed.
Mother, chasing me back to bed
Or so she fondly thought.Instead I’d open up my window
To get the view I’d sought.
Through city’s hazy light-pollution
I’d search till I could seeThe stars of 1st & 2nd magnitude
Most known and loved by me.
But tonight the rustling branches move,
Wild are the moonless skiesAs I slip out the door of our mountain cabin
With my coat and dark-adjusted eyes.
Awake midst sleepers, well past midnight
Strange sounds everywhere;But the sky is clear, my second home
I’ll catch my bearings there.
Looking up then sitting down
Near dizzy with the view.With all my knowledge, all my searching,
I could not find one star I knew
The sky on fire with blazing lights.
The Milky Way huge and bold,Nebulas, colors, thousands of stars
In tapestry overshot with gold.
Turning away and looking down
Upon my open handsI watch them glow with luminous light
Reflecting heaven’s jeweled bands.
And in that moment of pure synthesis
I could plainly feel and seeThe reason, path and destiny
Which in futurity will come to be.
Behind that light is substance,
And the atoms beyond sightWere birthed and cradled in far-off suns
Till from supernovas bursting bright
Were scattered throughout time and space.
Then under gravity’s determined pullThey became the building blocks of life.
The plan is truly rich and full.
From pure star matter we are made,
And we in turn will stars create.The pattern clear, the shuttle moves
To weave the destiny that waits.
