To behold the dawn of the universe

Webb will always face Earth’s night side to keep its infrared detectors as frigid as possible. … At 1 million miles away, the Webb Space Telescope is more than four times as distant as the moon.—APNews, January 24 2022

And if the Further Heaven— 

Be Beautiful as they prepare 

For Those who worship Them— 

It is too difficult a Grace— 

To justify the Dream—

—Emily Dickinson

                    And the Earth keeps up her
dancing and she is neither perfect nor exactly in time.
She is one of us.

And she loves the dance for what it is. So does the Sun who calls the Earth beloved. And praises her with light.

—Joy Harjo

Photos Malheur County, SE Oregon, Douglas Beauchamp

NOTES

The OTHER Side: Of Signalings and Metaphors

—The telescope was launched from French Guiana on Christmas.

—Besides making stellar observations, Webb will scan the atmospheres of alien worlds for possible signs of life.

—The primary mirror has 18 hexagonal segments, each the size of a coffee table

APNews: New space telescope reaches final stop million miles out. Marcia Dunn, Jan 24 2022. https://apnews.com/article/nasa-james-webb-telescope-arrives-space-9ea15e4bddaead131d4fcb6b07c53529

https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/

—Joy Harjo from her poem In Praise of Earth in How We Became Human (2002)

—Emily Dickinson’s poem:

I reckon—when I count it all— 

First—Poets—Then the Sun— 

Then Summer—Then the Heaven of God— 

And then—the List is done— 

But, looking back—the First so seems 

To Comprehend the Whole— 

The Others look a needless Show— 

So I write—Poets—All— 

Their Summer—lasts a Solid Year— 

They can afford a Sun 

The East—would deem extravagant— 

And if the Further Heaven— 

Be Beautiful as they prepare 

For Those who worship Them— 

It is too difficult a Grace— 

To justify the Dream—

what will they know

Through fractured terrain patterns of movement. 

Namings Dry River Crooked River Eons.

Basalting lava congealing yielding.

Marking red melding cracking stone.

Smoothing.

These days uncertain calculatings.

Drought.

Rains once waters again scour and heave. 

Shape gravity waves.

Seethe.

Find salt seas inland and ocean. 

Minerals remembering push through veins.

Red crystalline blood desiring.

Who will feel what will they know.

Photos: Dry River, Crook County, Oregon. Circa 21st c. CE