Starry Nursery Rhyme

By Harley White posted 04-17-2021 10:42

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NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope picture of AFGL 5180

Starry Nursery Rhyme

O cosmic cloud aglow on high
within the realm of Gemini,
your splendor leaves my mind agape
as does the wild fantastic shape
depicted on your stretch of sky.

A nursery of starry tots
with sprinkled pointillistic dots
asparkle in a hinterland
of stellar panorama grand
in one of Hubble’s stunning shots,

you beam with shadowed brilliance bright
much like a beacon in the night.
From star enormous at your heart
with painter’s craft of astral art
you’ve brushed impressionistic light

upon unbounded canvas dark
where sprawls of squalls make inky mark
in tempest insubstantial wrought
to tease us out of worldly thought
or dull deliberations stark.

What stirring drama’s being played
‘mongst stars aborning in the shade
sidereally dug with jets
that render hueful silhouettes
amidst an ever murky glade?

Embedded youngsters in the mist
by stellar respiration kissed
are variant in cosmic time
yet with internal reasoned rhyme
perchance whereby we too exist.

From dust to dust might spheres comply
in nature’s laws that underlie
a solar system’s spatial birth
to how creations dawn on earth?
Have we a kinship you and I?

~ Harley White

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Image and info ~ Through the Clouds ~ ESA…
https://esahubble.org/images/potw2110a/

Image explanation: This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope picture features AFGL 5180, a beautiful stellar nursery located in the constellation of Gemini (The Twins). At the center of the image, a massive star is forming and blasting cavities through the clouds with a pair of powerful jets, extending to the top right and bottom left of the image. Light from this star is mostly escaping and reaching us by illuminating these cavities, like a lighthouse piercing through the storm clouds. Stars are born in dusty environments and although this dust makes for spectacular images, it can prevent astronomers from seeing stars embedded in it. Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument is designed to capture detailed images in both visible and infrared light, meaning that the young stars hidden in vast star-forming regions like AFGL 5180 can be seen much more clearly.

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. C. Tan (Chalmers University & University of Virginia), R. Fedriani (Chalmers University)

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Andee Sherwood

04-17-2021 11:27

I was immediately captured by the rhythm of your newest poem and completely enjoyed the journey to Gemini. Thank you for taking your readers on another magical tour through the cosmos with this remarkable poem.

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