A ghazal by Mike Barney
The long night of the soul is darker
than a sun-absent winter is cold.

The human mind is infinitely bolder than
the farthest finite reaches of the cosmos.

The mind apprehends the cosmos at the same
time the cosmos pays the mind no mind.

To float and to fall are not at all the
same. Size sometimes still does matter.

At 3:00 a.m. matter stills to breathe
in the cold starry cosmos of the soul.

Ghazal 2.