"What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?" - Richard Feynman

My answer to Feynman's question is that it is easier to tell a story about a god than a planet. But Feynman's challenge is an interesting one, hence this poem. Which starts out being a bit odd just from the topic, and becomes more so from experimentation with meter.

The intended form for each stanza is rhyme ABABCC, syllable count 10, 10, 10, 10, 8, 7, with anapest feet for the first and third lines, dactyl for the second and fourth, iamb for the fifth, and trochee for the sixth. Probably this form has never been used before (one can debate how well it is achieved here), making this, for better or worse, a unique reading experience.

Incidentally, Feynman notwithstanding, Jupiter does not have much methane.

Jupiter - The Planet

All enduring, all empty, all lies black,
This is the velvet on which stars are born;
Cold clouds collapsing as waves inward pack,
Hydrogen fusing to fire its first morn.
Suns swim in the shadows of space,
Lighting like luminous lace.

But there are hills that no mountain can be,
Jupiter lacking the mass for a star;
Though, so better; so better glow to see,
Rapture in heavens, soft twinkling afar.
With brilliant beauty eyes to fill,
Dwarf to suns, yet giant still.

Slow somber silksome shadows, soft, alone, 
Wild streaming currents, and moons race around;
Copernicus, Galileo had shown,
Proved from their orbits, the ancients unsound.
A jewel in its solitude set,
Mysteries but half known as yet.

O, soft splendor of eve, is all but show? 
Drawing the heart, but no heart beating back?
Soft serenity, secrets seems to know.
Can it hold answers for what our lives lack?
The universe is formed from things,
Yet its beauty softly sings.

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