In Milky Way, the silver stream
where stars stelliferously teem,
is home among celestial sea
for willful creatures such as we
who dwell in dream within a dream.
Beneath the welkin’s haloed gleam
mankind concocts each earthly scheme
adrift with spin of galaxy
in Milky Way.
If only humans would esteem
this ‘once upon a time’ supreme
when life went on a living spree
and reached a sunlit apogee!
Have we outstayed our world’s regime
in Milky Way?
~ Harley White
* * * * * * * * *
The poem is in the form of a rondeau…
Some sources of inspiration were the following…
‘The Romance of the Milky Way’, by Lafcadio Hearn ~ The Atlantic…
Milky Way ~ Wikipedia…
There was a courtly gent name Hearn.
Who was fastidious from stem to stern.
He showered morning and night.
Kept his teeth pearly white.
But couldn't find a wife worth a durn.
I paused at a cemetery the other day
It seemed inviting in its quiet way.
Each headstone heralded the numbers,
Birth/death for he/she who slumbers.
Surely, though, there's more to discern
About the lives that lie 'neath the grass.
Here is a monument to Thomas Hearn—
Impressive, announcing a man of class.
His towering tribute gives me pause,
Does death really make us all the same?
Some here sleep with no applause,
A small, flat slab is all they claim.
I look across the cemetery's ground.
Glinting granite rises above all others.
Even here equality is not to be found
Among Christ's sisters and brothers.
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.