The Distant Place I Keep

The Distant Place I Keep

Kimberly Phinney

after “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman

Far off,
I overhear them say, “Can you believe it?”
I watch them scratch their heads and launch empty lines
back and forth,
growing louder still
until no one wins.

And I think, Why not? Of course! Amen.
Because my room is Silence and Mystery,
and no one is here but me in their comings and goings.

The stars need not our permission to bloom or shine
or to dance down through space as they fall and burn out.
Planets, galaxies, and other wonders in orbit
need not our thoughts about them at all. 

From another room,
I hear them say, too, “I can’t believe it!”
They shout and joust and puff their chests
like the prisoners captive
in Plato’s cave.

And I think, Why not? Of course! Amen
Because I have seen the Light—naked as it is—
and how the rest are just shadows and bits of broken truths.

Do the granules of sand say to the Ocean,
“Stand up and make an account for yourself”?
Or, “Leap, Waves, and justify your essence”?
Do the fish pause for breath to doubt their gills? 

I listen to it all.
Watch what I can see from this distant place I keep.
But how soon unaccountable I become tired and sick,
till rising—like you—I disappear into the dark mouth of sky
and witness the universe God birthed and hung himself—
without a word.

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Kimberly Phinney
Poet & Professor

Kimberly’s work has been published or is forthcoming in Christianity Today, Fathom, Ruminate, The Dewdrop, and more. Her debut poetry collection, Of Wings and Dirt, was published in 2024. She is founder and editor-in-chief of www.TheWayBack2Ourselves.com and has been featured on Good Morning America and ABC News.

Photography by Michiel Annaert