Praise.

Creti, Astronomical Observations, 1711

WATCHING the COMET on EASTER EVENING

Yes, quiet as a tomb

this dark surrounding us,

the only moving stone the one

we’ve watched these nights

of early sping, staring

as the brushstroke of its tail

comes clear and clustered stars

bloom into view from what

had seemed the emptiest

of places in the sky.

They light this country road,

converting us to shadows

between the ready fields

where in a few months more

we’ll watch our kids

chase fireflies again,

catching and holding one

in a cupped cave of hands

to show us before letting it go,

its fitful trail the path

of some brief comet

on an earthly scale,

another evening’s praise

for this uncertain, only life.

James Scruton