☀ Today's Poem: "Deep Field" Angie Estes

                               Photographed over ten days in December 1995 by the
                               Hubble Space Telescope, showing the 'deepest-ever'
                               view of the universe.

                               He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them
all by their names: tutti-frutti, Cimabue, bracelets
                               of Cartier, chock full o'Giotto spilled
                                    onto a black sky like Jujubes
                   during a matinee.Anna-Eva Bergman
painted Earth Seen from the Moon
                               and then painted the moon—Grand rond

gong in vinylique and metal leaf—as if it were
                               the mirror she used for viewing
                                    her own paintings. In the cosmos
                   of Dante, everyone enters death
backwards, their past still
                               before them, just as in some funeral
processions there walks a saddled horse

                               without a rider, boots reversed
in the stirrups.
                               If speech,
                                    as George Eliot claims, is but broken light
                   upon the depth of the unspoken, then all music
played on the terraces of the audiences of
                               the moon streams from the violino, the most prized

salami in Lombardy—made from the haunches
                               and shoulders of goat, deer, or chamois—shaped
                                    like a musical instrument and carved
                   as a violin would be played: the paw grasped
with the left hand, the leg held firm
                               beneath the chin, while in the right hand
a knife slides like a rosined bow. Traditionally

                               accompanied by a Valtellina Superiore, Inferno
riserva, it is eaten with a bit of Bitto cheese
                               from the Celtic bitu, eternal, which can be kept
                                    for a very long time.
                   The telescope showed us galaxies
so far away that their light
                               has been traveling toward us for most

of the history of the universe, even though
                               the galaxies keep moving away, just as
                                    Augustine explained: So I can be far from
                   glad in remembering myself
to have been glad, and far
                               from sad when I recall my past
sadness, as in the descent

                               into descant or chant, the Latin
canere: to sing. Even now I see us
                               on the boat leaving Venice—you facing
                                    forward, me looking back. You did not move
                               toward me yet remained in view: your face
centered, in focus, with all of Venice
                               receding behind you.