February, 1940
Lee Evans
Five pinpricks at twilight
Slanting west-northwest,
Communicate their silence
To a multitude of stargazers.
Before I was born and after I die,
All through my life and yours,
By day as well as by night,
They tremble through space.
Without the newspaper’s diagram,
I would have missed the array—
Except for Venus the Evening Star,
And the open book of Revelation.
Note: in 2002 The Washington Post had an article concerning the first five-planet “bunching” since February 1940, in which these five could be seen with the naked eye together after sunset. The next bunching would not occur, they said, until 2040. The planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.