Because the Moon is Far

By KATHERINE SIMONS

"BECAUSE the moon is far I have grown weary
 Of Earth and earthly things.
I find the same recurrent seasons dreary
 And crave Saturnian springs.

What nights are there of diamond-white desire
 Where Mercury has found
The stairways of the sun? What peaks aspire
 From Pluto's outer ground?

It may be, in the ghostly, frozen spinneys
 Of Neptune's sunless morn,
The flying serpent nests and that there whinnies
 The milk-white unicorn.

In slumber tangent to the arc of wonder
 I feel the fire hail
Of Jupiter and—through primeval thunder—
 I hear his dragons wail.

Let him who thinks he winnows truth from seeming
 And candleflame from star
Accept reality but leave me dreaming—
 Because the moon is far.