Ignorant before the heavens of my life, br I stand and gaze in wonder. Oh the vastness br of the stars. Their rising and descent. How still. br As if I didn't exist. Do I have any br share in this? Have I somehow dispensed with br their pure effect? Does my blood's ebb and flow br change with their changes? Let me put aside br every desire, every relationship br except this one, so that my heart grows used to br its farthest spaces. Better that it live br fully aware, in the terror of its stars, than br as if protected, soothed by what is near.