[U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón]
"In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa."
Arching under the night sky.
inky with black expansiveness,
we point to the planets we know.
we pin quick wishes on stars.
From earth,
we read the sky as if it is an unerring book of the universe,
expert and evident.
Still, there are mysteries below our sky: The whale song,
the songbird singing its call in the bow of a wind shaken tree.
We are creatures of constant awe,
curious at beauty,
at leaf and blossom,
at grief and pleasure,
sun and shadow.
And it is not darkness that unites us,
not the cold distance of space,
but the offering of water,
each drop of rain, each rivulet, each pulse, each vein.
O second moon, we, too are made of water,
of vast and beckoning seas.
We, too, are made of wonders,
of great and ordinary loves,
of small invisible worlds,
of a need to call out through the dark.