photo by Steve Lantz
I have been working on this poem ever since I first saw the amazing conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter, and Venus several weeks ago. I don't know why a simple sonnet gave me so much trouble, except that my mind, time, and energy are completely consumed by work these days. This not even the poem I intended to write, which would have ended with the line:
THE GODS DRAW NEAR TO OFFER THEIR NOEL.
Maybe that poem is still forthcoming.
But back to the topic of the heavens! This meeting of Luna (or Silva), Jove (or Glund) and Aphrodite (or Perelandra) was a glorious once-in-a-lifetime experience. We sat and looked at it one evening for a long while until it sank below the treeline. My head was, of course, full of thoughts of the potential significance of this union: Beauty meets the King of the Gods while Virginity presides. And then Michael Ward sent me an article he wrote about C. S. Lewis's thoughts on observing this same conjunction in 1953.
Here are some beautiful photographs of the conjunction.
Meanwhile, enjoy this belated sonnet.
Cosmology
Until the still moment of the turn of Time
When Incarnation changed the spin of space,
Devout Angelicals of Heaven turned
About the planet of the human shape.
At the Nativity, the orbs of love
And intellect reversed their centrifuge:
They sang their fierce chant and burnt their wake
Around the solar image of their Liege.
But then creation lost her fixity
About a hill cris-crossed with lamentation;
On Sunday morning, relativity
Danced giddy with acentric adoration.
Now once a year the gods align and sing,
Awaiting their eternal choreography.
photo by Doug Zubenel
3 comments:
duuude, wow, I didn't hear anything about this from anyone else.
I liked the poem, but I respectfully submit that it most likely pales in comparison to the actual sight in person.
Well done, and I enjoyed the link to those photographs.
Beautiful poem, and beautiful photos (including the ones in the link). I loved the ones where the photographer included an observer and/or a telescope in the shot. Especially the one with the father holding his daughter's hand as she points at the conjunction. Amazing. I wish I'd seen it. But thank God for photography. :-)
Here's another photo of the conjunction, looking like a giant celestial smiley face.
http://us.cnn.com/2008/US/12/02/offbeat.irpt/index.html
And here's another fun heavenly smiley face that has been circulating on the Internet:
http://www.utahbirds.org/featarts/2007/HeavenlySmileyFace.htm
I like to think of God smiling at his creation via his creation. :-)
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