Galaxy of Days Invisible matter – dark matter – is widely believed to exert the influence of gravity on galaxies, holding them together.
There is, you see, the dark barn in Rembrandt's nativity scene, halo of darkness round the centre of light.
It's hard to think of unlit walls, invisible dark air, rather than the light from the baby, shining like the elation of a child who goes higher and higher on a swing, while his reflected glow is falling on Mary with her composed quiet gaze, and on the shepherds, concentrating, at the edge of darkness. But the unseen barn holds them all together, has infinite possibilities in the rich browns shading to black.
It's a peopled dark, it hides those bounding lines you showed me always.
It's peopled like our joined souls, which had unknown linkages and secret webs of words surrounding our galaxy of days, that bright centre held by what was closed to sight.
Daphne Gloag This poem is from Daphne Gloag’s new collection A Compression of Distances (Cinnamon Press, Blaenau Ffestiniog 2009). The Rembrandt Nativity scene mentioned in the poem is reprinted on the back cover of this Sofia.
Daphne Gloag was a medical journalist and editor after studying classics and philosophy. A Compression of Distances, her second collection, is dedicated to her husband Peter, who has died.
From Daphne Gloag's new collection A Compression of Distances (Cinnamon Press, Blaenau Ffestiniog 2009). The Rembrandt Nativity scene mentioned in the poem is reprinted on the back cover of this Sofia.