Get Your Premium Membership

Footstep

Footstep Across the gray and stillborn face Earthlight beams in shafts of blue To follow sunlight into plains And ancient valleys in hide and see Played upon this place, A million years or more, Then bends around horizon’s sloping line To reach into the golden dawn It ever seeks just beyond The plane where light and dark Never meet. The hills and glens lie mute, still As on the day they came to be, Watching the ever shifting Earthrise set against of sky of ebony While not one particle Moves from the place of its birth In harmony with particles identical In nature and in face and they, Inertia’s handiwork, rest beneath the hands Of light that run across this silent solitude Without the help of winds That gird their neighbor’s waist. The eons look like eternity - nothing changes In the rhythm of inertia’s Ever watchful eye – no life force rising, Stretching, reaching – the sea tranquility Does not thunder with perpetuation's swell And yet, it bears the eagle’s mark – The first, now everlasting, footstep in a race So quickly come then gone And mirrors to empty space the challenge That gave them flaming wings carrying them Far beyond their fruitful home to leave a plaque In the empty dust of eon’s signature. Dedicate to Apollo 11 7-21-89

Copyright © | Year Posted 2020




Post Comments

Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.

Please Login to post a comment

Date: 6/5/2020 12:54:00 PM
Wow, one small step for a man, remember it well, the whole world was glued to their tv's. Brilliant write Sam. Over Fork Over. Tom
Login to Reply
Date: 6/5/2020 11:18:00 AM
Congratulations on your win. What a story/poem. A great write. Enjoy your win and day.............
Login to Reply
Date: 6/5/2020 10:01:00 AM
This reads so well-- but surely Sam, you're too young to recall the moon landing...congrats on the 1st place!
Login to Reply
Date: 6/5/2020 12:56:00 AM
(I watched it 'live' at our camp on the lake - I was 11, and my folks let me stay up late). Wonderful write, Sam - really great stuff! The end of the cold war served to snuff our flame of exploration ... I pray it has been reignited, (by the most unlikely of matches), and more boot-prints find their way to impress moondust, (I can almost hear that wan orb calling). We are explorers at heart - all of us - and the stars beckon. Superb write going into my favorites, My Poet Brother ... you never disappoint! :o)
Login to Reply
Date: 6/4/2020 9:40:00 PM
Great introductory of the beginning of earth and its movement through time. Enjoyed reading your verse.
Login to Reply
Kauffman Avatar
Sam Kauffman
Date: 6/5/2020 1:01:00 AM
Thank you so much Eve. So appreciated knowing you enjoyed Footstep. The landig on the moon was an incredible event - can't believe it was over fifty years ago! Hope you are doing well. Hugs and prayers to you my friend.

Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry