About the Night Sky

We've been traveling in Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana (also in the Sierra Nevada near Tahoe) for almost two weeks -- the last week before the new moon and now the first week after it. There have been many stary nights. Here's a poem that my husband found on Andrew Sullivan's blog (citation to follow, there was a beautiful photograph with it), but of course we've had Emily to thank for it, for many years now. My daughter is on an Outward Bound trip somewhere in the Montana mountains. I miss her -- and I hope she's having some starry nights and some meditative moments, some altering experiences, of her own.

We grow accustomed to the Dark—
When light is put away—
As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp
To witness her Goodbye—

A Moment—We uncertain step
For newness of the night—
Then—fit our Vision to the Dark—
And meet the Road—erect—

And so of larger—Darkness—
Those Evenings of the Brain—
When not a Moon disclose a sign—
Or Star—come out—within—

The Bravest—grope a little—
And sometimes hit a Tree
Directly in the Forehead—
But as they learn to see—

Either the Darkness alters—
Or something in the sight
Adjusts itself to Midnight—
And Life steps almost straight.