The Music of the Spheres

The Music of the Spheres

 

 

 

Pythagoras defines three kinds of music:

of instruments

of body and soul

and the music of the spheres

in which mass and proportion act together

to bring forth harmony and resolution.

 

But it was Kepler who discerned a symphony of the cosmos

in which the planets create tones in orbiting their suns

so that the outer space of our imagination  

is inhabited by the oscillating chants of mathematicians

and if we but listen as substance speaks

and if stars which are spheres traverse the heavens in patterns

appropriated by astrological explanation

so that their movements embody, as it were

the overture to some new world

then do songs of theoretic choirs reach the ear of man alone

or a detached and distant God, as well?

Reviews

[Ken e Bujold]

Montag, this is an incredibly riveting poem. the opening of 3 kinds of music, so elegantly composed. The whole poem's an easily read lesson on the stars, our place within the universe. almost had me thinking I wanted to be a mathematician. Almost. Then I remembered I have trouble balancing my check book.

Ken e

[Montag]

Thank you Ken, Quite weird, your review showed up in my in-box just minutes after I'd finished 3 solid days of editing it.

I'm going to see what you've been up to later today.

[Ken e Bujold]

from your tired pen to my awakening eyes, not bad. as for me, a little whimsy, a few short odes, and a lot of sunshine, as I am on vacation in the BC mountains at the moment