"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

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I know you didn't mean it to, but that somehow soothes me now.

Here is something of mine that is distant kin in subject, a cha'logh vagh (lit. 'twice five') inspired by seeing Comet Hale-Bopp and the total lunar eclipse of that night from an airplane flying west. Translation follows.

97319 muDDujvo'

    'etDaq lIy vIlegh
    'o'Daq ngab maSwov
    HurghchoH 'engmey Dung
    chal mInmey vIvan
    'IH ramvam wanI'

Translation:

Forward I see the comet
Aft the moonlight disappears
Above the clouds it grows dark
I salute the eyes of the sky
Tonight's event is beautiful

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Have I told you lately that you're awesome? *beams and huggles you*