Guggenheim Museum September 7, 2014, James Turrell Aten Reign

Light falling
from 18 billion years ago 
from stars
or from stage lights
light cascading down like rain, 
like a blessing.

My heart beats more slowly as the soft blue 
deepens shade by shade 
into royal blue at the lowest tier
of the rotunda’s ascending spheres
and already the light falling 
from the highest sphere in the dome
is now rose,
 
becoming warmer as it spills 
from each ring of light
and my breath quickens,
my heart pumps time away
faster
and yet here we are
in a realm without time,

mesmerized by gold now
into peach and the world outside
with its racket and clatter,
its cursing and spitting
less real than the light falling all around 
like the light near water,
we silent watchers
bound to one another 
by the falling light.