[Matt Q]

Hi James,

I like it. It's evocative. I don't really see the poem making any specific scientific claims, so I didn't think anything was off in that respect.

I'm not quite clear what the opening's "we thought it close" refers to. Is "it", light, or something else? An answer? The resolution of a fundamental question? God, or knowledge of God?

I find this hard to parse, so don't really understand it:

a lighthouse’s reach our own
splay of fingers squeezing rock and sand

Are you missing a comma or other punctuation? Is there elision (a lighthouse's reach [that was] our own splay ...)? A comma is often used to indicate elision, though could be problematic here given the other punctuation. Or is there a missing "to"? "a lighthouse's reach to our own splay ...."? Or maybe I'm just not seeing something obvious.

of hope, among the most buoyant of
all debris, laid out for God the nature of light.

I wonder about the line-break here. "of" seems rather a weak word to accentuate, especially at the poem's close. You could break on "all", which would construct a superlative, "the most buoyant of all", for the next line to undercut/deflate. Or on "buoyant", I guess, though that would give rather a long last line.

best,

Matt