I interpreted the heavens today
As a cache of infinite musical notes.
Suspended in random fashion, I viewed
The stars through a transparency etched
With the five lines of a musical staff.
Moving the sheet across the sky, I was
Perfectly beguiled when the stars became
Notes stacked in harmonies of minor fifths
And sevenths – semitones and microtones –
A wash of minuet and motet blossomed
Before me. This supernal opus of grand
Composition flowed forward, aggrandized
By tercets and triads; the resplendent mix
Of heterogeneous interstellar suspensions
Graced the musical staff in random fashion.

Was this the enlightenment of the ages?
Astrophysical symphonies that could unlock
Minds eye – open distant portals – produce
Healing balms capable of soothing broken
Hearts. Could this be the key to opening the
Eyes and ears of those who gaze forever
Inward but never see or hear?

Entranced in sheer loftiness, and given
A gift of heightened auditory sensation;
Centaurus became a cantus firmus, and
Leo Minor a seraphic capriccio. As I moved
The transparent musical staff to the North,
The Corona Borealis played out as a madrigal
Of sweet simplicity, while Leo Major roared
In perpetuum mobile. Moving collectively in
Contrapuntal base, the Gemini twins danced in
An exoticism of far off lands, while Cassiopeia
Became an oratorio of genteel luster. With the
Grandeur of a Turkish Sultan, Pegasus celebrated
With a lively blending of triangles, bass drums,
Cymbals, double-reed instruments, bell-trees and
Trumpets. In bel canto, Andromeda sang in purity,
While Picis Austrinus became a chaste passacaglia.

How consummate; this sinfonia of sounds that
Sated the cosmos. With every movement of the
Musical staff, another motif of harmonic brilliance
Spilled forth in the mysterious mingling of stars.
How diminished I became – gazing up at this glorious
Composition – agnizing that the earth and its dwellers
Were but ONE NOTE in the heavenly euphony.

Richard Lloyd Cederberg