Mysterious space

The vastness of it
           the silence that occupies it
and yet there’s nanospace
           the emptiness of it
the whiteness of it
           the noise that fills it
the measurement of it
           the distance between objects
present in it
           the relationships between
those who inhabit it
           the blank page or canvas
the soundless concert hall
           dancers at rest

The Pequod sailing the South Seas
           the white whale lost in it
Ahab too
           the sperm oil that illuminated
the darkness of it
           Samuel Enderby and General Wolfe
asleep in a Greenwich crypt
           our lives an interval in it
our love a moment in it
           our hearts lost in it

John Lyons