The Roman Laurel

[Mark A. Murphy]

The Roman Laurel

for Nicholas Christopher

Could it be the eye of man is heavenly in its nature
gazing up at the stars, as it does, to capture
something more than the sum total of its parts?

Could it be the eye of man is more lost than found
among the myriad crowds in their mourning-bands
than all the stars spiralling in the outward bounds?

How then should we look at the uttermost galaxy
if we do not see in it the remarkable choreography
of light that affects our own worldly destiny?

The eye which gazes into the glittering heavens
sees beyond the dreams of the ordinary man,
sees in the beam its own nature, its own origins.