Adrienne Rich — For the Conjunction of Two Planets

We smile at astrological hopes And leave the sky to expert men Who do not reckon horoscopes But painfully extend their ken In mathematical debate With slide and photographic plate. And yet, protest it if we will, Some corner of the mind retains The medival man, who still Keeps watch upon those starry skeins And drives us out of doors at night To gaze at anagrams of light. Whatever register or law Is drawn in digits for these two, Venus and Jupiter keep their awe, Wardens of brilliance, as they do Their dual circuit of the west – The brightest planet and her guest. Is any light so proudly thrust From darkness on our lifted faces A sign of something we can trust, Or is it that in starry places We see the things we long to see In fiery iconography?