Astropoetica: Deep Field, by Danny Rosen

Three thousand answers in a sand grain
in the sky. Revelation in a speck of light.
Look close and closer still.
With hand lens held close to your eye,
focus into where we are, what we are,
who we are: Many colored you and me
mixed in with the honeybee, the venus
flytrap, the manatee, and dogs gathering
all the information they need
with their eyes closed.
Look close and closer still.
          Smell the deep field.
          Feel the vibrations
in the core of every star.
Plug into the energy that cycles around
endlessly; nebula, star, nova, and repeat
in every speck of galaxy. Now a vague
purple spiral looks back at me as I stare
down infinity, down to the bottom of a
dream.
The dream the universe had before
the beginning.
The dream the universe had before
the first question.
The dream the universe awakened from
when we started walking on this ground,
rubbing sticks together, rounding out
wheels and gears, grinding mirrors,
learning to look close and closer still.
Learning to see
          Into the heart of this mystery
          that demands a new mythology.
          Learning to see ourselves
          within this grain of sand
          hanging in the sky.

Danny Rosen directs the portable Western Sky Planetarium that he takes into schools and communities throughout Colorado and Utah providing astronomy education programs. He works a few months a year for a safari company in southern Africa teaching wilderness guides about the sky and sharing poems around the campfire. He lives with Jack the Dog in western Colorado.