In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa

by Ada Limón

In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa   by Ada Limón


Arching under the night sky inky
with black expansiveness, we point
to the planets we know, we
 
pin quick wishes on stars. From earth,
we read the sky as if it is an unerring book
of the universe, expert and evident.
 
Still, there are mysteries below our sky:
the whale song, the songbird singing
its call in the bough of a wind-shaken tree.
 
We are creatures of constant awe,
curious at beauty, at leaf and blossom,
at grief and pleasure, sun and shadow.
 
And it is not darkness that unites us,
not the cold distance of space, but
the offering of water, each drop of rain,
 
each rivulet, each pulse, each vein.
O second moon, we, too, are made
of water, of vast and beckoning seas.
 
We, too, are made of wonders, of great
and ordinary loves, of small invisible worlds,
of a need to call out through the dark.




This June, the US Poet Laureate and former host of The Slowdown, Ada Limón, unveiled a poem that she wrote for NASA's Europa Clipper, a poem that will be inscribed in her own hand on the side of the spacecraft set for Jupiter's water moon, 1.8 billion miles away. Her work is partnered with the Message in a Bottle project, which invites anyone to have their name etched on the microchip mounted to the outside of the spacecraft. Our producer, Myka Kielbon, met with Ada in the ceremonial offices of the Poet Laureate in the Library of Congress, to connect on this moment that merges science, art and humanity. A shortened version of their conversation is in today’s podcast feed. The full version of this interview is on our website.
— Major Jackson