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Poem
By dint of a right in tatters
impinging on terrestrial sight
that urged me to worldly matters,
I was struck with a parallel quite

unforeseen, in a Hubble view
which drew my fancy out of the blue,
a galaxy wreathed with rings two
unusual in such starry slew.

Even one ring it’s said is rare
much less a twosome around the heart,
shown through telescope’s steady stare,
from secular evolution’s part

which played upon asymmetries.—
The phraseology caught my eye.
‘Twas hard to miss analogies
of checks and balances gone awry.—

To proceed with the astral troop,
counterintuitive to its look
the ring further out in the group
as if from some deceptive playbook

has been titled the ‘inner ring’,
in Horologium’s pendulum
clock to measure the hourly swing
with time’s onward ticking rule of thumb.—

Back I come to the great dismay
that’s caused when connivers pave their way
in inner circle plots they lay
and make other beings easy prey,

these wily schemers power-mad
who puff with pride over trumped-up scams,
bloviators with falsehoods clad,
devoid of compunctions, naught but shams.—

But lest I leave impression wrong
of scene sidereal seen on high,
how could one fault a starry throng
which follows the laws of how and why

throughout infinitude of space,
whether Mankind comprehends or not?
(So few pursue enlightened grace
within our insignificant slot.)—

‘Not from the stars,’ to quote the Bard, 
‘do I my judgment pluck,’ ‘midst Shakespeare’s,
wondrous wordings, which I regard
as miracles of the uttered spheres,

and ‘constant stars,’ to onward cite
with altered drift, ‘in them I read such
art’, ‘tis true, yet who else could write
save he with awesomer master’s touch?

A bar across the galaxy
the inner and outer rings connect
when glimpsed with closer scrutiny
in the Hubble’s surveys circumspect.

At center the nuclear band
in terms of terminology used
is easier to understand
thus leaving my senses less bemused

as to the cosmos I return
to raise my gaze and poetic voice,
along with those who likewise yearn,
in praise of human freedom of choice

while living out this mortal span
of voyage to death’s uncharted shore
from where our earthly life began
to where it ends, unless there be more…


~ Harley White


* * * * * * * *


Some sources of inspiration were the following…

“Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck (Sonnet 14)”, by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)…

NGC 1512 (Wikipedia)…

Spiral Galaxy NGC 1512: The Inner Rings (APOD)…
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