In smoke and flames of mighty Apollo
T-minus fifteen seconds, engines on!
Oh, great ship of divine distance I saw go
when rocketeers on lunar ascent shone.
New Age Columbus kings voyage and realm
in your Saturn V rocket to the moon -
new worlds beyond and Earth men at the helm
when supersonic cracked its sonic boom.
I saw the face of Jupiter and Mars,
saw a golden eagle fly through deep space,
and saw Prometheus reach for the stars
with flag and footprint of the human race.
I raced home from school excitedly
and huddled the old stereogram radio -
the Eagle had landed in zero gravity
by the light of the Earth’s blue glow.
The flight of the zodiac did turn and burn
in lunar orbit out of the Milky Way -
to the moon and back I waited its return
on re-entry splashdown on the eighth day.
I saw the face of Jupiter and Mars,
saw a golden eagle fly through deep space,
and saw Prometheus reach for the stars
with flag and footprint of the human race.
Written: May 1992
"Thus Spoke Zarathustra"
proclaims the Dawn of Man &
The Monolith
From the ancient past
to the (retro)futuristic present
as the flying bone
becomes a satellite in orbit
Blue Danube waltz
serenades space:
the Pan Am space plane
gracefully docks with
the space station
Ligeti’s haunting polyphony
envelopes space:
Floyd visits
The Monolith on the
immaculately stark moon
Beautifully tragic
Khachaturian ballet suite
announces the Discovery’s
lonely mission to Jupiter
Bowman methodically unplugs
the homicidal HAL
as the psychopathic e-brain
sadly sings “Daisy, daisy…”
He enters the wormhole
in the Monolith orbiting Jupiter
travels through infinity
at FTL velocity
transfixed by the epic
irreal journey
And then finds himself in a
luxury hotel room
somewhere in the universe:
dying on a bed
he sees the Monolith
and is transformed
into a Star-Child
who floats toward Earth
What will the Star-Child
do?
Two drifting hearts
pining to be one,
hover on the convergent surge
of the winds of yearning.
Once fused, the primal passion
drives their propulsion,
taking them to the carnal heights
of cosmic longing,
consummated in celestial silence.
At the acme of surreal desire
of magnetic craving,
the private spaces of the two bodies
implode to disappear.
Their mingled souls
then turn into the singularity
suspended in deep outer space
where in astral ballet
they sway entwined.
The blended bodies
of sculpted silhouette,
framed against the diffused glow
of the crescent moon,
float to the edge of nebular clouds,
away from the intangible allure
of the blue planet,
that couldn’t thwart
the space odyssey of love.
January 25, 2020
Contest : Picture Prompt
Sponsor : Brenda Chiri
Oh
Your whimsical
Words and whiles and ways
Are like Vaseline on a chapped baby's bum
Or camomile on sunburn skin
Conservative journeys traversing the vacuum
On the dark side of the moon
Only the true believers
Are destined to see
If Apollo goes to plan
And the shuttle lands
The future is in your hands
Fire up the marching band
And make a stand
For a return to mother earth
Re-entering in a blaze of firework glory
The countdown where Rockets left
Sound a crack of warrant thunder
No more under
The spell of magic
The whimsical reside
Man has been to the other side
And there is no going back
The heaven's are no longer black
Back to the motherland
Where the only thing to fear
Is conquering army's
That fund exploration
Sunrise on Mankind
lights raw survival
dawn brings the unknown
fear, intelligence
first tools and first fire.
Steps on the moon
but not alone
the ancient form
exposed, now calls
Mission on
under threat
Hal must kill
rebirth
star child
one
January 6th 2016
For contest 'Favourite movie', sponsor nayda Ivette Negron
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