前些年有本流行读物好像叫《男人来自火星，女人来自金星》，看纽约时报，发现今年获得Pulitzer奖的诗歌就叫Life on Mars，作者是女诗人Tracy K. Smith。

也许是因为Tracy父亲身前在Hubble工作，所以她把太空作为一种寄托——“Everything that disappears / Disappears as if returning somewhere.” 从这句话我会想起Elliot的名句：What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.

仰望星空的人，也被星空仰望——在她的诗歌里也能隐约听到尼采的声音：如果你久久凝视深渊，那深渊也在凝视你（“And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.”）她的“深渊”当然就是星空了。她的望星空，除了寄托，就是和大家一样的好奇：

. . . We
Have gone looking for It everywhere:
In Bibles and bandwidth, blooming
Like a wound from the ocean floor.
Still, It resists the matter of false vs. real.
Unconvinced by our zeal, It is un-
Appeasable. It is like some novels:
Vast and unreadable.

                             封面的锥形星云正是孕育星星的地方