(after Francis Thompson)
Imagine a night sky in the Barrens
without the North Star.
Imagine that Zeus had never thrown
Callisto into the sky,
that there was no need to protect her
or her sons from Hera.
Picture the proverbial glass half-empty
and what that represents.
Picture it again, and now half-full;
what does that change?
The Universe has no use for your glass,
which it did not create—
a construct of your unconscious desire
to mete the gift of life,
to protect yourself from disappointment
or daunting threats of hope.
There is ever only eternal water,
emptied and already fulfilled.
Imagine, then, an imposing night sky
without a polar star,
and imagine yourself in the Weddell Sea
adrift and questing home.
You shall not fail to conceive a guide
for your insatiable search
and latent knowledge, be it Ursa or Crux:
the Spirit always provides.
Yea, in this silent interspace
God sets his poems in thy face.