Interstellar

A devout John Coltrane fan, I am partial to his earlier work, especially Giant Steps and the classic quartet albums. But with each listen of his later, more abstract albums, I come to appreciate how, as in Interstellar Space, his tight focus and intensity turn abstractions into meditations and new visions. I thought of Coltrane when I read the recent news of images of the birth of planets. I also thought of the opening stanzas of French poet Robert Marteau‘s beautifully austere poem “Plants and Planets,” which introduce these two abstract macro shots:

Plants and planets
Obey the same heaven;
As beasts and men
Are nourished by the same sun;

And the metal in the mine
Warms minute stars,
Sulphurous flowers so delicate
They live in every corpuscle.

((You can read the entire poem here. Click to enlarge the images.)