The Milky Way Galaxy Psalm

Look up at the night sky, Abraham was told,
and contemplate the vast expanse of stars.
Look up at the night sky, children of Abraham,
and adore before the sacrament of stars.
Look up at the Milky Way, winding its white way,
starry eyed that this is no lazy lane of lights
but a cosmic circus-carousel spiral galaxy
that every 230 million years turns round once.

In open mouthed awe I pray in wonderment, O God,
for your whirling dervish dancer of a galaxy
has only circled twenty times since our sun's birth,
only ten times since oxygen was invented,
moving less than one hundredth of a turn
since ancient humans stood up straight.

for me, to look up at this milky way of stars
is to see the silver stream of stars as Mother's Milk,
and so to gape in a dwarf's prayer, my God,
for the heavens are immeasurably full of your glory.
-- Edward Hays, Psalms for Zero Gravity