Above the Stars of Eden

Above the stars of Eden burns

A night without an ending,

And, out of it, a presence turns

To gaze upon the life ascending

Upon a small, revolving world

Of blue, with green that’s newly growing.

A consciousness has come uncurled,

Commenced its crawl to greater knowing,

But, with its rise, the chance to fall

Comes too, and, with each new discerning,

The danger heightens. Life stands tall

To reach beyond its station, learning

That therein lies the path to progress,

But also, possibly, its own undoing.

The cosmic presence watches all

And asks which way this garden’s life is going.


I thought I'd start the new year with some poems about beginnings. This is the first one, which calls back to the beginning of the human race. Even today, though, I think the question at the end is still quite relevant.