I see the North Star in the deep black sky...

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I see the North Star in the deep black sky
And I go to the mountains guided by
Its light -- I shall quarry those great ancient
Sentinels for their stone, carve them, patient,
Play mason, cover them with blood, no faults --
I will build my staircase, no rests, no halts
Ascend to yonder void -- you may watch me
O Moon, you may watch me toil, and then see
Me suffer, but know that  I need only
Starlight and your moonbeams, dew and holy
Night air are my manna -- watch me lay waste
To the land, behold, O Moon, my long chase
To the Heavens -- and I will reach my goal:
The North Star, and it will swallow me whole






--

Whenever I try to articulate my ambition and fervor for my ultimate goals, I always fall back to this poem. My boyfriend and I talk about these ultimate goals in terms of a pole star, a fixed, godlike body in the Heavens. I don't think I can explain it any better. Because this is me, you can safely bet that the North Star is medical school, and yes, I'm self-aware enough to know that single-minded, obsessive pursuit of any one thing will be bad for my health.

The painting is "The 4th Day of the Creation" by M.C. Escher, 1926. Let's call the one on the left the North Star and the one on the right the Moon, my eternal, omnipotent critic-self.