ASTROLITHICS

Galaxies originate from quantum fluctuations in the primordial universe, imprinted as traces in the cosmic background radiation. The tiny ripples of matter, which were stretched to enormous dimensions during the inflation, were the seeds of the subsequent formation of astronomical structures, shaped by gravitational attraction.
—Ersilia Vaudo

It probably started in poetry; almost everything does.
—Raymond Chandler

It is the rock where tranquil must adduce
Its tranquil self, the main of things, the mind,

The starting point of the human and the end,
That in which space itself is contained, the gate
To the enclosure, day, the things illumined

By day, night and that which night illumines,
Night and its midnight-minting fragrances,
Night’s hymn of the rock, as in a vivid sleep.
—Wallace Stevens

NOTES
—Ersilia Vaudo in The Story of Astrophysics in Five Revolutions (2025, trans Italian)
—Raymond Chandler in "The Simple Art of Murder" (1944)
—Wallace Stevens from the poem "The Rock" (1954)

—Photos: Douglas Beauchamp, Lassen County CA
—Below:  Wallace Stevens from the poem  “Prologues To What Is Possible” (1954)
 

The metaphor stirred his fear. The object with which he was compared

Was beyond his recognizing. By this he knew that likeness of him extended

Only a little way, and not beyond, unless between himself
 

And things beyond resemblance there was this and that intended to be recognized,

The this and that in the enclosures of hypotheses

On which men speculated in summer when they were half asleep.