The Starfish

Robert P. Tristram Coffin

 

Triangles are commands of God
   And independent lie
Outside our brains as wild geese show
   Travelling down the sky.

And this five-pointed thing that sucks
   Its slow way as it can
Has as sure a hold on God
   As great Aldebaran.

It has as large a power to please
   Any eye that gazes
Upon its harmony of lines
   As ancient Attic vases.

Pentagon for Gawain's shield,
   Five points of chivalry,
In ancient laws and musical
   It creeps below the sea.

Its fingers are on God's own hand,
  Its just name is a star,
Through aeons it remains as right
   As birth and dying are.



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