And if one's asked can one recall
A slight acquaintance with the ALL,
Challenged so, one's muse-mind sees
How, in potential symmetries,
The poem beats time in several ways.
Some harmonies that it conveys
Come close to the intrinsic? No.
A pause for meditation, though.
Moments of calm closure?

                                         But
As an imagined voice cries "Cut!"
Unorchestrated cyclones blow
From above, from beyond, from behind, from below,
Raising a brain-cell fog that blurs
Muse-moons-and brings new cosmographers
Who tell of near suns crushed so tight
Older reactions can't ignite,
While our far probes no more respond
From that faint featureless Beyond...

"Dark matter" next, "dark energy"...
Where is this darkness none can see?
An arid stretch of times and spaces
With human life its lone oasis?
Have galaxies failed to interbreed?
Is every mind-stream choked with weed?
While one's ready to disavow
Philosophy's Why, psychology's How,
Perhaps one's shown too little patience
With all those symbol-thick equations?

          *****