"Deep is the water and long is the moonlight..."

Deep is the water and long is the moonlight
inscribing addresses in quicksilver ink,
building the staircase a lover forever pauses upon.
Deep is the darkness and long is the night,
solid the water and liquid the light. How strange
that they arrive at all, nights on planet earth. (more)

From "Nights on Planet Earth" by Campbell McGrath. Complete poem at Poetry Foundation.

Nótt Riding Hrimfaxi by Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831-1892). Image from Wikimedia Commons

Norse myth of Nótt at Wikipedia
(Companion post at Turn Outward)