Haibun
Inky dark night. Jewels in the heavens sparkle like diamonds in a necklace. The Seven Sisters wink seductively while trying to sit in Cassiopeia’s Chair. Orion chases Ursa Major and her cub when he stops to slake his thirst from the Big Dipper. Great Leo butts’ heads with mighty Aries. Sirius, the Dog Star, is the glowing eye of Canis Major as she helps Orion track Ursa. Faint Polaris guides mariners to home port from the tail of The Little Dipper.
new moon
a black palette rules the sky
stars come out to play
The distant galaxies show off their faint light as clustered pinpoints as if the black curtain were pricked multiple times by a needle. Sagittarius points the way to the center of the Milky Way. Nurseries of star forming clusters birth new babies to populate the sky as old ones blow up and die. In the middle lie the monstrous supermassive black holes which suck all light in to their mighty maws bending time and gravity to their will.
are they our ancient home
signals from a distant past
will we return to them
Categories:
ursa, sky,
Form: Haibun
Night View
I sit by the fire with a lone lamp,
dimmed, so my eyes can watch the
astronomical wonder above me.
A small mesquite fire to warm my bones
in the chill night air.
A new moon to not block my vision
of such magnificence.
Jewels decorate the sky,
pinpoints of light billions of miles away.
Perhaps I can see mighty Leo or Ursa Major with her cub,
or Canis Major at Orion’s heel.
Perhaps a meteor will suddenly streak
overhead in a blaze of glory.
Maybe gentle Aquarius will empty his jar
and wet the dry desert with his water.
Supermassive black holes are out there somewhere,
spewing ionized plasma jets into the depths of space,
bending time and space to suit their purposes.
The great fabric of space and time lie above me
calling me to come.
Someday I will.
But for now, I enjoy.
Categories:
ursa, night,
Form: Ekphrasis
Midnight and,
far from my town's bright lights
in darkness of sky, I find solace
in darkness of sky, I seek freedom
I looked at the glittery trail of stars
the satellites moving as if stars are racing
the pleiades looking like a small ursa major
I lay my head on the grass
before fog comes to obscure my view
before it's grayness takes all over me
I look at the stars, spot constellations
Wishing if I could fly through them
wishing if I could go and visit a planet
wishing if a planet that can carry the weight,
the weight of my emotions
the weight that pulls me down on the ground
there's a freedom in the night sky
meant for dreamers, meant for believers
I want to dream, I want to believe
that I will be fine
midnights, and I run away from the town
to seek freedom in the starry night.
Categories:
ursa, night,
Form: Free verse
Polaris, Star of Ursa Minor
among her suns, you are chief shiner.
Commonly known as Pole or North Star
you guide navigators from afar.
Can you also lead and guide me
as She who led the Magi Three
to the Desire of all Ages
prophesied of by many sages.
Polaris, famous as the North Star
what a fit metaphor you are
of Jesus, the “Bright and Morning Star”
who leads and guides men from afar.
Fellow travelers, life’s wayfarers
Don’t be detoured by naysayers.
Jesus is the true Polaris,
He is the guide to get to know.
Categories:
ursa, analogy, christian, jesus, nature,
Form: Rhyme
I’ve heard it said that poetry is dead
But I don’t believe that’s true.
It runs in our veins like water to rain
Somewhere inside me and you.
It’s up in the air, in circles and squares
And oceans, rivers and tides,
In cats and dogs, bayous and bogs,
In taverns and tall rocket rides.
For life is an ocean of poetry in motion
Though we can’t always hear its rhyme,
As it twists and turns, beckons and yearns
Throughout our lives and minds.
Poetry lives in the love we give
One another from day to day,
Intrinsic in nature like Ursa Major
And all the music we hear and play.
While tilling a garden
Or gazing at stars,
Poetry is in motion
Wherever we are.
In photography, paintings
And all manner of the arts,
That move our minds
And stir our hearts.
And while some may deny
The plain simple truth…
This life is a poem
That needs no proof.
© Terrell Martin
09/08/2024
Categories:
ursa, beauty, emotions, poetry,
Form: Rhyme
"If stars define destiny then they are at the right place as I got to meet you."
Once in a town lived a stargazer,
Gazing up high,
Looking up for patterns in the sky,
Tracing over the Orion and Ursa major,
Dreaming to grow and fly,
Still, in thoughts, she lies,
Staring at Tauras and canis minor,
Drowning in the heavenly sky,
Someday hoping to fly,
Once in a town lived a stargazer,
Gazing up high.
Categories:
ursa, sky,
Form: Rhyme
Many accept things just as are,
Where so fate ferries, there they are.
They look for boat nor yet for oar,
But search for a navigator.
Their life seem Arundhati* star—
In a star string Ursa Major,
Too faint to spot, farther than far,
They try all life with it to spar.
Holding ego’s little finger,
They lose, false promises when mar.
Believe me: you’ll stay as my star,
Long as our life’s journey goes far.
My trust not as much in a star
As in you, O my life’s Poll Star!
__________________________________
* Ursa Major is a constellation in the Northern hemisphere. It circles around the Poll Star and has seven stars representing seven sages. One of which is Vasishtha. Very close to it is a faint star representing his wife Arundhati. As is an old belief, if one can spot it with unaided eye, his eyesight is considered good.
Musings |14.12.2021| couplets
Categories:
ursa, fate, star,
Form: Couplet
Whispering Wings
Playing heartstrings,
Bringing hope,
Like antelope
Playing on the savannah.
The goddess Diana,
Keeper of nature,
Directs Ursa Major
The great bear
To keep us from despair.
The comfort of nature
Has its own nomenclature,
Like the air we breathe it in,
It dwells our skin
Our hearts, our being.
For: Whispering Wings Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Chantelle Anne Cook
01/11/2022
Categories:
ursa, nature,
Form: Rhyme
Sunrise, sunset in adjacent systems blends behind
a calm waterfall wake, the hollow unknown man only
minds his altruistic poems of prism alchemy--cleverly
arranging perfect crystal aurora petals against a
color coded ancient star Genesis, forming opulent
halos of Zen emptiness processions--guiding
bright shiny angel wings, keys to soaring paragons of
pellucid, avid, unborn, illusory gray imaginations, like
the savvy, siren Mermaids of Ursa Minora--giving way to
all en-viable spirits on the 4 winds of sagacity as the
4 Horsemen on shadowy compunction ride, reign free
unchecked, under looming celestial cloud layer realms.
Sitting on the high hills of home
feverishly flanked near open valleys of conscious
convergences, he softly speaks to a Promethean blank
bliss, encountering morning light memories, open temporal
templates offering glowing, discarnate, latent,
ascetic desires of a lasting, formless, empty existence.
Categories:
ursa, beautiful, character, happiness, joy,
Form: Free verse
Children of China
David J Walker
When left to their own devices
The vise and the vices come out
And Catch both witless and wise
In clamps and crimps and cramps in the
Hard and darkened damp
Of a shade from the foreign Gamp made
and shipped by children of China
who claim all rights to name
the moon and Ursa Minor with
An option for the sun
When left to their own devices
The witless and wisest
Sit side by side in priceless pride
And the cheapest priced prizes
In an anniversary party as the
Sun Also Set Rises
In the west
Categories:
ursa, allegory,
Form: Rhyme
Miss Adventure liked to be doing some activity
Climbing in the tallest tree or swimming underneath the sea
Up a mountain, in a cave, doing something really brave
On a surf board where she’ll crave the fullest and the fastest wave.
Sometimes flying in the sky, leaping out... why o why?
All that daring-do... or die, isn’t something I would try
Steep, and yet we know she’ll cope, as she climbs the rocky slope
At the top, with faith and hope, leaps with an elastic rope
Speeding at a manic pace, as we humans race the race
To a very distant place, she’s the face of outer space
NASA said at Ursa Centra, no way back from where we’ve sent ya
Were that me I’d lose my denture, but then my name’s not Miss Adventure
Categories:
ursa, adventure, nursery rhyme,
Form: Rhyme
Ursids
radiant lights
December meteors
in their ecstatic nighttime flight;
a waning moon will not halt their travel
comet Tuttle left them behind
their annual flight’s bright;
Ursa Minor’s
Ursids.
Categories:
ursa, planet, poems, poetry, sky,
Form: Rictameter
The dice rolls
Hide in the house and play chess with myself
I am the lucky one
Those who hide in the house are all lucky
Life and death outside
Like a super-long apocalyptic movie
We are dice, bystanders of each other's fate
Those who roll the dice are
in the sky, in the sea, in the swamp
on the back of Ursa major
Hanging upside down in the dark hole
turned the world upside down
People rushed out of the house
are the heroes who won't be the dice
They dig for the truth
But it can't change it by chance
Categories:
ursa, anxiety, art, august, baptism,
Form: Free verse
Ursids
radiant lights
December meteors
in their ecstatic nighttime flight;
a waning moon will not halt their travel
comet Tuttle left them behind
their annual flight’s bright;
Ursa Minor’s
Ursids.
12-8-19
A Red-Letter Day Rictameter Poetry Contest
William Kekaula
Categories:
ursa, poems, poetry, sky, space,
Form: Rictameter
I weave rhapsodies | words dance before you
Enshrining words on paper | obelisks of enlightenment
Heartbeats quicken pulse | hark metered rhythm
As i map stars with my quill | Ursa Major could guide me
To rendezvous with cosmos | perhaps map a planet ‘B’
A cleaved tank duo can be read as one poem or 2 stand-alone tankas. This was a collaboration between Yasmin Khan, and myself. Yasmin is responsible for the tanka on the left.
Categories:
ursa, poems,
Form: Tanka
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