Magnum Mysterium

by Paul Thwaites

This above all, this single star in sight,

Is heaven pinned, and earth’s quick pulse and sigh,

Of breath ethereal, traverses night,

Her bold eternal vastnesses of sky ~

Beyond our musing satellites of dreams,

Unfathomed oceans of infinity

Drift free, horizonless, from mortal themes ~

Expanded notions of Divinity ~

Vanish into the void like gods unknown,

Mirroring silent, all our vanity,

Till stand we gaping vacant and alone,

Towards the abyss of our sanity ~

And stare to space as at a face unborn,

To glean the bright complexion of the dawn.