Astro-poetry

"For the Conjunction of Two Planets",

a poem by Adrienne Cecile Rich

We smile at astrological hopes

And leave the sky to expert men

Who do not reckon horoscopes

But painfully extend their ken

In mathematical debate

With slide and photographic plate

And yet, protest it if we will,

Some corner of the mind retains

The Medieval man who still

Keeps watch upon those starry skeins

And drives us out of doors at night

To gaze at anagrams of light.

Whatever register or law

Is drawn in digits for these two

Venus and Jupiter keep their awe,

Wardens of brilliance, as they do

Their dual circuit of the west -

The brightest planet and her guest.

Is any light so proudly thrust

From darkness on our lifted faces

A sign of something we can trust,

Or is it that in starry places

We see the things we long to see

In fiery iconography?