Two Haiku for the Heavens
Black velvet night falls,
dusty with points of small light.
I wonder who's there?
Through the lens I look
seeing the unseen, so far
the
universe there.
Doug Starwalt 1997
When I Heard The Learn'd Astronomer
When I heard the learn'd astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and
measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much
applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.
Walt Whitman 1865