“On Gibbs’ Law”
If hot solution, saturate,
Be set upon a ledge to cool,
Rayed crystals will precipitate
On dust no thicker than a molecule;
When the slow chilling of the night
Crosses the threshold of the freeze
The stars shine out as sharp and bright
As frostflowers in their fractal vortices;
The first white gas that was the world,
To ease the heat and press of birth,
Froze into forms as it unfurled:
The starry galaxies, the living earth;
Such pressure drives this crystal trance,
This thickening of art and hour,
Where order tumbles from the dance
Of dying syllables and forms a flower.