Still There Are the Stars Part 1

I see the star we call our sun.
and try to imagine a thousand suns.
Maybe you can do it, I cannot.
If I can’t see  a thousand suns,
how can I imagine
one million stars,
a thousand of a thousand.
I give up, give over.
Yet still there are the stars.

Say you can, comprehend a million.
Now stretch your mind to see
a thousand of those millions.
Not as left brain number,
but out there, all around us.
No way to hold a single billion,
yet still there are the stars.
And still it matters to try
to see our little earthling place.

Stay the course, further now,
feel your muscle of imagination
flex, brace, push, extend:
Those billion stars
are one of a hundred billion
contained in a single galaxy.
Take a resting breath
before you try to guess how many
galaxies are currently computed.

Take another breath and try,
try to believe,
(we’re past the act of comprehension).
In an act of starry faith,
repeat it to yourself:
there are (at least) one hundred billion
galaxies.
Like ours, the Milky Way.
One hundred billion, others.

And it matters, it matters
more than ever now,
to understand our earthling place.
Once humans had to surrender
our notion of earth as flat,
and then we had to learn
we orbit the sun instead of being the center.
Now is time to realize our size
in the vastness of it all.

It’s not so cold to think of it.
They sing! We sing
as part of the celestial song.
We belong,
we belong to this immensity.
And what we sing and do on earth
reverberates
throughout the cosmic net.
Rejoice! That still there are the stars.

            ©Susa Silvermarie 2025