Nine Billion Names

1 One 
2 day, in
3 a story:
4 A Tibetan
5 monastery, built
6 proud in a distant age
7 where monks sought to count the names
8 of He who created the earth.
9 The purpose of the universe was
10 said to be so men with words could seek and
11 find and then transcribe the names of the divine.
11 A million moons had waned and 1000 names
10 were written before the computer age,
9 when the monks switched on their new machine
8 to count names at the highest speeds
7 this side of eternity
6  to solve The Mystery.
5 And on the first night
4 the stars went out
3 silently,
2 one by
1 one.