The Starry Sky . . . (Lars Gustafsson)

The starred sky, the fixed stare of the galaxies.

The universe stubbornly upholding enormous distances

against our just-as-eager strivings to see the world as small,

possible to survey, trafficable for signals and observations.

Quantum logic in physics and chemistry.

The same thing: matter's obstinate refusal to be 

       anything but probabilities,

shadows that sweep over distant cliffs at sunset,

sudden gusts that run through a single aspen in the grove

   and leave it almost still.

And our stubborn eager battle for a substance,

for particles, individualities, things that refuse to 

        exist in the physical world.

This world of distances and shadows

and random leaps between the spectral lines,

this frighteningly still dance

is what I mean

by the world's stillness before Bach.

― Lars Gustafsson, from The Stillness of the World Before Bach

(1936 - 2016)

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Sunday sermon