"Like a snowflake falling on water."

[browngirl]

I need a poem today, I think.

FLYING AT NIGHT

Above us, stars. Beneath us, constellations.
Five billion miles away, a galaxy dies
like a snowflake falling on water. Below us,
some farmer, feeling the chill of that distant death,
snaps on his yard light, drawing his sheds and barn
back into the little system of his care.
All night, the cities, like shimmering novas,
tug with bright streets at lonely lights like his.


from Flying at Night
Ted Kooser

Comments

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

you do have an exquisite taste in poetry! - thanks for sharing this one - what is it that speaks to you in "Flying at Night"?

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

As ever, the light imagery. Also, the connection, between the farmer and the galazy, the rural life and the city, all parts of the author's cosmos.