Diane Ackerman

Diane Ackerman (1948- ) A poet, essayist, and naturalist, Diane Ackerman earned an MFA and a PhD from Cornell University. She studied both poetry and science. She has won numerous prestigious awards. Diane has said of her work; “I write about nature and human nature. And most often about that twilight zone where the two meet and have something they can teach each other.”

I.

As our metal eyes wake

to absolute night,

where whispers fly

from the beginning of time,

we cup our ears to the heavens.

We are listening

on the volcanic lips of Flagstaff

and in the fields beyond Boston

in a great array that blooms

like coral from the desert floor,

on highwire webs patrolled

by computer spiders in Puerto Rico.

We are listening for a sound

beyond us, beyond sound,

searching for a lighthouse

in the breakwaters of our uncertainty,

an electronic murmur

a bright, fragile I am.

— Diane Ackerman from ‘We Are Listening’