Images from the James Webb Telescope
we sat in the valley of the Carina Nebula
surrounded by mountains in space,
glittering bright,
In awe of the universe, a humbling sight
so stellar a nursery, where stars are thrust
playfully they swirl within cosmic gas and dust
a colorful canvas, a sight to behold,
a celestial masterpiece, millions of years old,
we see new stars emerge, so bright and vast
as a dying stars light dims; far into the past
The Southern Ring Nebula and its infinites of chance
your will was law, until you became a prisoner to fate and circumstance
you had both experiences of being a god and barely existing in a deterministic world, in which you could not advance
some infinities are larger than others, you feel under chance
The Successions and Separations in Stephan’s Quintet
You don’t always get back what you put in
I felt depression when it pulled away a friend
you can follow in succession, i’d love to see you again
the gravity of its suggestion as it whispered in the wind
but it’s a wonderful life I questioned;
staring at the cut marks on his skin
you were alive against stupendous odds but felt oppression;
I wish your time we could extend
most people who could exist to see the sunset do not,
sadly in the end
the Pillars of Creation and the drear of existence
Falling from a great height is one of my biggest fears;
but I fall year after year
gravity you brought me here, do you look at me and jeer?
our existence is a relation I experience with drear
we are two aspects of the same process, that inevitably cohere
you lock me in a sphere
you hold me so severe
gravity, are you always so insincere?
8 thoughts on "Images from the James Webb Telescope"
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Delicious.
Eye candy, thought candy,ear candy
in fact just candy candy….nice mix
delicious.
Like your poem on 6/1, I’m really struck by the way you build these reflections on external images/phenomena that connect them to a human feeling or moment.
Thanks Jason, I appreciate that! Pulling the curtain back slightly, I don’t always write in a linear fashion. These were four separate poems (or functions of emotion if you’re into computer science) that were patched together later to form a larger poem about a relationship with a particular person whom committed suicide and the toll it had on me. I wrote to more images from space but these four fit together nicely to create a story and I left the others out.
Enjoyed the way you played with rhyme throughout this poem and how each phase of the story is reflected in subtle changes to form or rhyme scheme. Difficult and sad ending. I see the context in the other comment and that just adds to the heartbreak. Thank you for sharing this.
love the image of stars swirling playfully, the stellar nursery
I really like how you’ve given gravity such a huge role in this piece. People are falling away or falling from, suggestions have gravity, it becomes a realized character by the end. Really cool idea and pulled off nicely.
Hey Bill, I’m really glad you noticed! Gravity is an antagonist in my upcoming poetry collection “Sweets, Dreams, Gravity, and Sentiments”
Great progression from outer spaces to inner ones. From impersonal to personal. Each section is a wonderful poem in itself, but together you have such a nice whole. “but I fall year after year” – love this line so much!!