
A rippling of the space-time fabric
In a split second of frenzy ringing
The universe like a bell
More? Hmmm? More?
Disappearing into gravitational
Waves of agitation

A rippling of the space-time fabric
In a split second of frenzy ringing
The universe like a bell
More? Hmmm? More?
Disappearing into gravitational
Waves of agitation

Sarah Ortbal
Original photo…Wes Frazer for The New York Times

This is where we are
I believe we’ve achieved
The outer limit

Another eight or so suns’ worth of mass and energy disappeared into gravitational waves, ripples of the space-time fabric, in a split-second of cosmic frenzy, ringing the universe like a bell… — Dennis Overbye
image credit: N. Fischer, H. Pfeiffer, A. Buonanno/Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics; Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes Collaboration

Watching had the indescribably
Intense feeling of being in the
Presence of an event

Edmund Blair Leighton (1852–1922)
Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum

Severity and allowance
Switch and signal
Plead what you want to plead
Testify what you want to testify
Persuade only too well
With latent sensuality
And sufficient restraint
Hold it in check then
Appease ancient gods
With a violent transfer of power
And the force of contradiction
There’s the shelter object
At the level crossing
Switched on by this love thing
The gate crashing ideal

Gavin Hamilton (1723–1798)
National Trust, Kedleston Hall and Eastern Museum
