SIRIUS

               SIRIUS

I turn the white tube of the telescope

upon that brightest, white, white star 

and see far in the far

a blaze of light, its brilliance finer

than any jewel or precious stone

that shines by stolen glow alone.

Bright Sothis, Sirius, you are

all the sky’s most splendid star.

The old sky-lining of

Hellenic legend drew you as

the dog star, the hound’s eye of

the greater, faithful creature following

Orion, the hunter through

 the turning of the night.

And in ancient Egypt's lore

you were seen as sacred star,

one whose rising in the palest wash

of the hushed, dawn-hinting sky

beckoned coming flooding of the Nile.

You are still to sight

greatest star in all the night,

brightest far sun in the darkness.

Our cultures, civilisations, go and come,

yet you shine on, oh, distant sun,

across the paths of harbouring vastness,

across time's endless transformations.

I gaze in awe and dimly feel

affinity to being, boundless and

beyond these thoughts.