Far and Near

Wonders of the world abound on our earthly stomping ground, in the seven seas profound, midst the heavens round us wound. Images from reaches vast by astronomers amassed show in varicolored cast, cosmic glories unsurpassed, stories of the great immense, begging questions why and whence, scenes stelliferously dense, bringing past to present tense. Oh how tantalizing to lose oneself in starry view of galactic vision new where a poet’s words ring true! Tennyson’s ‘Far--Far—Away’, penned for Music’s haunting play with the sounds the words convey as they whisper, swing and sway, tells of ‘far’ from past long gone, murmur from ‘his own life’s dawn’? breath where ‘doors of death’ go on through an open curtain drawn? Whether time or space be meant, or spacetime together bent, still, whatever sense is lent, far’s remote in its intent. After sunset’s crimson blaze we may raise a dreamy gaze in escape from troubled days to celestial splendors praise. Will our search of cosmic sphere teach us to esteem what’s here? Oft stargazers too I fear must look far to see the near. ~ Harley White