31 March 2024

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

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