“Poetry can break open locked chambers of possibility…”
Adrienne Rich

On the eve of a new year, one that already has too many expectations heaped upon it, I look to the stars, where limitless possibilities dwell…

timeless starlight
illuminates winter nights
with ancient stories

© Catherine Flynn, 2017

I was unsure about the final line of my haiku and undecided about sharing a post today, but after I stumbled upon this treasure from Maria Papova at Brain Pickings, my indecision was gone. I hope you enjoy this poetic celebration of “great scientists and scientific discoveries, and a protest against the silencing of science and the defunding of the arts.”

Here is one of my favorites from a stellar line up of poets.

WE ARE LISTENING
by Diane Ackerman

I.

As our metal eyes wake
to absolute night,
where whispers fly
from the beginning of time,
we cup our ears to the heavens.
We are listening

on the volcanic lips of Flagstaff
and in the fields beyond Boston
in a great array that blooms
like coral from the desert floor,
on highwire webs patrolled
by computer spiders in Puerto Rico.

We are listening for a sound
beyond us, beyond sound,

searching for a lighthouse
in the breakwaters of our uncertainty,
an electronic murmur
a bright, fragile I am.

Read the rest of the poem here.

Here’s to a  New Year full of possibility. Please be sure to visit Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe for the Poetry Friday Roundup.