Notes About The Poem
Written on the twentieth anniversary of the Columbia tragedy. This poem reflects on the space program and the risks involved, focusing on several of the most challenging events in NASA's history. While not every tragedy is mentioned, I encourage you to explore the stories of the heroes within NASA.
Listen to poem:
Never Abandon Stellar Ambitions
Whoosh. Whoosh.
A fire beneath steel,
The engines burn, the heavens kneel.
Thrum.
The pulse of courage, the beating heart,
Each mission a daring work of art.
Seven names on Challenger’s sky,
They rose with dreams, they dared to fly.
Crack. Pop. Boom.
The frost betrayed,
A cloud of grief where hope once stayed.
Seven more on Columbia’s flame,
Mach fifteen carried their names.
Hiss.
The breach unseen, the heat pours in,
A fragile shell, a mortal skin.
Fire on Apollo, in moments it spread,
Three heroes lost before they fled.
Snap. Thud. Crash.
Gemini spun wild,
Lives held fast as chaos smiled.
Hush.
Near misses, the close calls abound,
Heroes who fought to turn ships around.
“Houston, we have a problem”—a phrase of might,
Apollo 13’s long, harrowing night.
Tick-tick.
Each countdown calls,
A step toward triumph, or a step that falls.
The void does not forgive or wait,
Its price is courage, its reward is fate.
Whoosh.
For every name etched in the stars,
For every scar that space still mars,
They carried risks for us to dream,
They braved the silence, they split the seam.
Boom. Thrum. Tick. Tick.
Their voices ring.
In every launch, their legacies sing.
To touch the heavens, to dare, to fall,
These are the risks they took for us all.
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