Clear Star Floods Heart

Lauren Camp

An evening with the Lowell Discovery Telescope

Far from the soft inside of existence 
the air is visible.
Clouds scallop their swirls along the wall. 

They keep working, scratching
their bodies, persistent. 

Then sky moves far and wide 
to better wear the untamed black.
It hits the lowest sun.

The machine is taken from the break 
and given the chance to skim. 

The scope tubes around and calmly tips 
a mirror through the open vault 
to a point or a threshold of knowing.

It finds what has been forgotten 
of that outer house. 
Call it prayer how it turned 

until the distance couldn’t lose it. 
That long routine conjures a freedom
beyond normal time.

The Science

In 2023, I spent two weeks as writer-in-residence at Lowell Observatory. During that time, I had the chance to travel with astronomer Stephen Levine to observe and learn about the range, history, and imaging capabilities of the 4.3-meter Lowell Discovery Telescope. This scope, one of the largest in the world, researches the boundless universe: asteroids, comets, planets, Kuiper belt objects, double stars, massive stars, dwarf galaxies, and colliding galaxies. When weather monitored on screens in the control room was right, we entered the dome and watched as the mirror tipped up and the LDT traveled smoothly into place. It was mesmerizing to be beside this incredible instrument.

The Poet

Lauren Camp served as New Mexico Poet Laureate. She is the author of nine books, including Is Is Enough (Texas Review Press, 2026) and In Old Sky (Grand Canyon Conservancy, 2024), which grew from her experience as Astronomer-in-Residence at Grand Canyon National Park. Honors include a Dorset Prize, the New Mexico Book Award and finalist citations for the Arab American Book Award and Association for the Study of Literature and Environment Book Award. She has received support from Lowell Observatory, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Black Earth Institute and The Taft-Nicholson Environmental Humanities Center. www.laurencamp.com

Next poem: Cosmology by Miriam Fraser