Drake's Equation States:

(Let N = the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication might be possible.)

"The definition of being is simply power." -- Plato

..............................

A. Finding the Tenmon Bun’ya No Zu: Chart of the Constellations and the Regions they Govern

Look inward to sky and heaven:

..............................................

Our stories bind us
.........................To the stars,
.............Bring us closer
..........................To their orbits,
....................................Their power and desire, their
.............Consensual circles of
..........................Madness and fire.

...................................Gravitas resides deep
........................In those
.............Dark pockets
.........................Of the universe;
....................................Catharsis twists deeper
.........................Into the heart of our
......................................Own darkest
.............................................................Matters.

B. Poets of the infinite sea, drowned full fathom five

But there is no peace here,
.............Only ghosts and
......................................Fragments of thought
.................................................Scattered among your maps;
.......................No hero lives in this poem.
............................................................No hero lives
........................................................................In this region of the sky.

...............................................Look elsewhere for justice,
..........................................................Look elsewhere for perfection,
...............................................Not between these contested lines
...........................................................And broken rhythms,
......................................................................Perpetually breaking in two.

.............As you write this
........................Your ink dwindles, and
....................................The Universe expands,
...........................................................It covers you in flood;
.................................................And you realize, too late, that
........................Those are not pearls

.............................................
.............................................................That were his eyes.

C. Mathematical visions of mind-time

.........................Fear is etched deep
............With rune and quill,

.............................................Sumi

.................................

.....................................And needle,
............Into the arms
Of our slender galaxies,

...........– Violent ink writ large
...................................Upon the menacing face of it all –

......................A spectral resonance haunts us.

Our suns, ancient wanderers,
............Have gone senile;
........................Cold shoulders sag,
.....................................Their lines strain toward
............Blood-dimmed collapse
........................Along the faults of our
...................................Wobbling dirt-filled empires.

............Oedipal dreams and apocalyptic fevers
.............................................................Inhabit these skies;
............We fill these rivers
.......................With blood-seeds and kill-spawn
...................................We cover these lands with
.......................Flowers of fire, inedible poisoned nectars,
...................................With cypress death and mad pomegranate,                                                               ............................................................Writhing olive and black sakura.

.......................Hungry poets, all, seize upon these demon seeds,
.......................................................................Seize like sickly beasts,                                                            ..................................................................................Speak of new lands un-blighted
...........................................................– Full of the same milk and honey,
...............................................Full of the same H₂O and DNA –
...................................But dying in a tiny corner of the sky,
..................................................................................Untouched.

D. The lost Teahouse of the Infinite Light

............I remember you once waited
All night in the cold
........................For Orion’s ghost to rise,
............Banging on the drum star

..............................................tsuzumi boshi

...............................

............And striking at the sky;
........................But you did not see Him
....................................And in your hatred
........................For the setting sun
....................................And the unsettling moon
............Rising in silence and rage,
............................................................In violence and pain,
........................You forgot to listen,
.........................................................................Again.

............There is no peace here,
........................No universal hearth fire
....................................Comforting the chilled limbs
............................................................Of your inner knowledge;
....................................Only horror....and hate.........and hiss...........and loss
............The smell of the vain and your own glorious dead,
........................The snap of your brittle flags planted
................................................On brittle maps with blurred legends,
....................................The plastic distractions
............................................................Of the Spiritus Mundi gone mad,
............Fueling you onward and outward,
........................Strange beast,
....................................In an eternal wonderlust
................................................For permanence and order,
........................For contact with mirrors.

 E. The awakening light

............Yet Orion’s ghost shall rise again and
........................Bring the Universe to us,
................................................Expanding and purging, as It does,
............With light and flood – but only if you listen:

....................................kenshō

......................

....................................Awaken

............And we’ll haunt these beautiful lines forever,
........................– Suffer in a suspended sea-change –
...................................Shine on with the possibility of life,
......................Dangle a future promise
...................................Bathed in the passing of light,
...........................................................Like the phantom stars
...................................And perfect circles that
.......................................................................Haunt our skies.

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