Gagarin and Columbus
GAGARIN AND COLUMBUS
Brave or foolhardy
He was a dreamer of voyages
Into unexplored, unknown, undiscovered country,
The first to pursue the visionary images
That few had even seen clearly.
On an odyssey in void or foam
Many followed his footsteps on
The path but did not return home;
And fell over the edge of the horizon
With no return to Ithaca’s loam.
The face of an entirely new world
Never before seen mentally or visually :
He reached over the horizon and touched
It, as his voices told him this was all folly,
With no light, no chart unfurled.
……………………………………………………………..
NOTES:
(a) This poem was written to commemorate the 50 th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s
spaceflight.
(b ) Ithaca was the home of Odysseus.
(c) “voices…..folly “ is based on T S ELIOT’S lines in Journey of the Magi.
(d) Gagarin, Columbus, Odysseus, Eliot were all undertaking a journey into the unknown.
Copyright © Sidney Beck | Year Posted 2011
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