#1473 - how far can the naked eye see?

 

1473

5.12

12.i.24

how far can the naked eye see?

 

three miles it says on an American website

a mile is a way back if you ask me

but then seeing is always into the past

 

will everything be great again?

 

that could be the problem

I mean that a mile is a long time ago

 

‘a mile is a while’ some say

 

your horizon from ground level shows

a not-quite-endless monoculture

flat as our Earth

 

you’d see fifty miles if the Earth was flat

and it was all just cotton and corn

some oil wells and such

 

three miles from my opinion

one imagines much the same

 

there are those say ‘I see the sun’

and others say

‘don’t look’

 

it’s different in a fine mist

or flying through thick cloud

or in prison

stars like days notched up

 

or, on a clear night, here’s another site –

you could see the International Space Station

apparently that’s two hundred and fifty of those miles I mentioned

 

then think of Saturn – one point two billion kilometers

that’s the furthest you’ll see the sun’s light reflected

without some special ground glass

 

some say you can see the Andromeda smudge

two point five something million light years

 

that’s a fair way back towards the beginning

 

you have to see through your own galaxy though

which is despite there being one hundred billion stars

give or take

easier than you’d think

 

of course if you’re high

it’s more

 

and maybe it’s different in a poem?

 

without those veils of ignorance

you’ll see further

you’ll see more stars

 

then there’s the question

‘how naked the eye?’

 

whichever way you come at this

it always helps to look up