Kepler's Constellations

     on Josef’s acceptance to gymnasium

Phenomenal, it might be said, for the

phenomenological.  Tycho Brahe

observed the orbits after Copernicus

eccentricized the earth. “The sun

sets without setting at all”, a modern

Polish poet would conclude. And

Kepler, charting what he could, upset

the expectations even more. The

orbits didn’t synch, didn’t course the

way a stargazer might think, and

thus a point elliptical had to enter in.

        We travel such roads all the time

        in efforts to get where we want to go

        or what we wish to see: a setting

        sun, a dawning one, days beyond our

        dreams. Occasionally we ante up

        and amble to the dark unknown. God

        knows what’s there—angler fish,

        Lucifer and machinations all our own

        —heaven help us when we fly to

        others we know not of…. Heaven help

        us anyway: we sojourn unaware.

Joe now goes to survey stars celestial

and earthbound. He’ll enter halls

of Jan Kepler Gymnasium and supply

his share of what’s been supplied

by Copernicus, Brahe, countless more

in line with learning and lighting

the dark unknown. “Eat any fruit,” we

recall, “save that from the tree of

the knowledge of good and evil.” Why

tempt us more than the Serpent?

As Magi know, we travel now in grace.