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| Megellanic Clouds above Laguna Lejia, Chile |
COSMOS
(for Ezra Pound)
Saturday night in the Santa Cruz Mountains
Power knocked out by two days of storm
Lull in the rain, clouds clearing
Awakened by bright moonlight filling my bedroom
I walk barefoot out onto the debris-strewn deck
See winter stars:
Orion, Pleiades, Cepheus, Cassiopeia
Sparkling through the scudding clouds
Raw moonlight illuminating the glistening forest
Like a Spielberg alien contact set
I watch lightning sparking, thunder grumbling
Inside mammoth clouds retreating to the East.
Cosmos
The Greek word for "beauty"
(Cognate to "cosmetic")
That's what our predecessors called this world
Cosmos was their word for Everything
Cosmos: one name for All Phenomena
Inside and out
One name for this uncanny experience
Spread open for all conscious beings
For you, for me, for the fish in the sea.
This one equation:
Cosmos equals Beauty.
