Astronomy

We sought the stars—

The stars sought us—

Though mortal, we dared aspire

To knowledge of the heavens

Not for us the lesser earths

The diurnal complacent dream

No—for us the finer, rarer lights

Of love’s utmost constellations

We ascend the untrod galactic peaks

To gaze on the flowered earth below

We scale the heights of dawn Olympus

Nearer ecstatic gods than sullen men

We make our bed above the dreaming world

In one of heaven’s hidden chambers

We lie on clouds of starry bliss

The dim earth far below, forgot—

We reign together, my radiant

Beaming down upon the moon—

By what art or magic

Did we attain this sparkling height?

Not by silver chariot

Nor on Pegasus wings—

We saw the stars

In each other’s eyes

Steven Holland
September 21, 2013