A POEM ABOUT THE SKY LAST NIGHT

Last night I sat out on the deck staring at the stars and the dark sky. But then I went into the bedroom to go to sleep I found a book on the bed my wife had left me to read. The book is called "Selected Poems—Lorco and Jimenez" and is translated by Robert Bly. The book inspired me to write about what I’d just seen. I’m not sure if it’s a poem or not, but for better or worse—and mostly to explain to myself—I call it:

"The Night Sky"

The night sky being the picture of infinity—
I reach out my arm to touch the blackness
And my hand sinks in,

Going only as far into the blackness
As the length of my arm.

Still, the night sky remains for me
An example of infinity—
That makes me want to travel further.

I reach out a thought that can go
As far as a thought will go,

But still I find it will not travel that far
Into the darkness of the night—

I find it stops at
The far end of the thought.

Somehow I know there is infinitely further to go
—in the direction of infinity.

I think that when I am able to stop all my thinking
and simply sit in the space between the stars,

Only then will I begin to fathom
The infinite space that lives there.