SATURN'S RINGS

The rocky rings that surround
Saturn’s floating sphere
Will always man astound
On our small planet here.

We know so little about
The content of these rings,
Are they, gas, ice or rock,
Metal or other things?


The sun, whose prism light
Is cast upon the rings
Presents an eerie sigh
Visions of our dreams.

Man has, through the ages,
Viewed them mysteriously.
Studied and contemplated
And wondered quite seriously

What has caused these formations
In the quiet black of space
Among other creations
In this desolate, soundless place?

ODE TO THE COSMOS

The Cosmos is a collection of magnificent sights,
Of burning suns, like campfire lights.

Nebulae stretch into a spider web cloud
Of incandescent dust, scattering out..

The sedulous planets cast a silvery glow
From light reflecting from pole to pole.

Against the dark void, stars flicker and burn
As nearby planets forever turn.

Comets of colored gas blaze a spectacular trail
Past solar systems and stars they sail.

The galaxies__foggy, whirling spirals of light,
Like a milky helix of thriving life.

Radio waves broadcast a magnetic song
Emptying into space, then forever gone.

White dwarfs and red giants populate the night
Bursting super novas…………..a recycling of life.

To the Cosmos, with jubilant exultation
Where “Life” is an eternal celebration.

AFTERMATH

America, America”…………………………….
Gone are your “amber waves of grain”
For now those “beautiful, spacious skies”
Give us radioactive rain.

Those “purple mountain majesties”…………….
Are blown to dust again.
No more “fruited plains” for now
“Life” is deadly dust in the wind.

“America, America”…………………………..
What will become of you?
The nuclear war of yesterday
Destroyed all, but a few.

“America, America”………………………..
We survivors are a small lot.
YES, MAN CAN SURVIVE A NUCLEAR WAR,
But my question is:
FOR WHAT?

The Last Day

Enraptured by the veiling fog
Walking on this cosmic bog,
Amethyst clouds enshroud my vision_
Ahead I see a slight division
Of coral land that rises high,
Into the glowing orchid sky.

It’s so pleasant being here,
No smog, no crime, no hate, no fear.

Drifting softly lavender clouds
That linger so close to the ground.
This place is like a Shangri La.
It’s beauty leave me quite in awe.

But soon our mother ship arrives
To take us back…..back in time,
To old earth as it was before
It had it’s last and final war.

We were sent here long ago,
By a time-machine, you know.
It brought us safe and quickly to
This sphere of lavender and blue.

To keep us safe from earth’s demise,
Sometimes I wonder if it is wise
To return “home” after so many years,
I guess we have the same old fears.

Earth won’t be the same to us
Because when we return, I trust
It will be before we were born
On some sunny, cheerful morn.

When earth was calm and bright and new.

As I stroll across my misty world
For the last time, my mind unfurled,
Absorbing every sound and smell
Upon this planet on which I dwell.

So that my memory will hold
All these things my heart enfolds
When I return to planet earth
And gaze across it’s width and girth

I’ll remember……….
THE LAST DAY

The Telescope

I built this telescope with dreams.
Through the lens I can see the future.
The mirror holds reflections of man’s conquests.
The length of the tube is the endlessness of space…
The total sum of which is the destiny of man.

THE ASTRONOMER

I climb the mountain in the amber dusk
The evening lights winking on in the city below.
With telescope in hand, I know that I must
Reach the summit to “see the show”…….
The stars create a perilous dance
Whirling forever in their heavenly flight.
Through my telescope I hope to see, per chance
A fiery, blazing meteorite,
A planet glimmering a faint golden glow,
Alpha Centauri or M23.
Are there beings on these celestial globes?
My wondering mind is longing to see,
But, I think what I keep questioning most is…
…………are they looking back at me?

SOLITUDE

Emerald waves crash onto the shore,
Chanting it’s melody forevermore.

A solitary song, with no one to hear,
No crowds to enjoy, it , or to cheer.

The ocean has a rhythm all it’s own,
With seagulls crying in an endless moan.

Only someone who has sat alone to listen
To pounding waves and sea spray glisten

Can understand it’s eerie, endless sound
A message of sadness, when no one’s around

TURNSTILES

The beckoning light of the far-off suns
That populates the darkness around us, run
Together in a map of endless time,
Inviting us on a space-ward climb

The stars are like turnstiles, a gateway to answers
A realization of who we are- transfers
Us to unknown worlds in the depths of our minds,
Imaginings of planets and creatures of all kinds.

We dream these things, for our destiny must be
These pinprick lights in the darkest sea.
The stars are forever calling us home
As we enter the turnstiles to the future they unfold.

QUESTION......

Eternally peering at the crystal twinklings of space,
Wondering, questioning of what they are made.

Burning suns shedding their light for millions of light years, forever.
Someday to burn up , to explode into a super nova.

The dimmer planets reflect light from the bright stars, that are suns.
Our small planet is but a minute speck, a pin prick on black.

We ponder, as we look out into space and see these celestial bodies:
Are there beings living on them, do that breath a gas different from ours?

Are they humanoid, android, monstrous or rock? What is their culture, their history?

Sometimes it startles me to think,
Are they peering back at…………………………………….at us?

HEY, I'M A ROAD MAP

There once was an alien from Flatern,
Whose skin had a peculiar pattern.
He fell off a cliff,
Which wasn’t too swift
Now he’s used for a road map to Saturn!

STARS

(Galileo's telescope)
Galileo was the first to see the stars
At closer range than other men, thus far

Through a long black tube with grounded lens
And mirrors reflecting from within.

Those small serene, blinking specks of light,
Endlessly lighting up the night,

Have enchanted man’s humble imagination
And have long been a source of fascination.

We wonder just what it would be like
To fly away some secret night

And have a close-up view of these beckoning fires,
To answer questions that our heart desires.

But for now, we can only gaze,
Through polished glass and nighttime haze.

TOO LATE

It is my inference
From past experience
The in my posthumous state,
I’ll still be late

VOYAGER

It's silent running, endless journey-
Always traveling, but never getting there....
In the soundless blackness of space, dotted with vast pinholes of light,
Voyager drifts without ceasing.

Passing planets of green immeasurable heat,
of swirling pools of color,
of ice-coated particle rings,
of unknown cold!
On out to the total unknown of other worlds.

Flickering in the "eye" of Voyager is the flickering conquest of man.
"To bravely go where no man has gone before"......

Voyager will remain-

Long after our world is no longer,
Long after the flowers have stopped growing,
and the birds have stopped singing

The memory of man will not be destroyed-
Voyager will always carry the message from a planet thriving with life.

REFLECTIONS

Stars-their glittering lights cause us to reflect
Upon our destiny-are we-in fact
Creatures of this small insignificnt world,
Or was man from the fiery suns, earthward hurled?
When we see the stars from our planet of stone,
Are we really looking.................................HOME?

LOST CIVILIZATIONS

Atlantians, with your gleaming, golden spires,
Lost in time's mortal, devouring fires,
Living on tranquil seaborne home,
A thriving people, forever gone.

Mayans, with mournful Gods of stone,
Making the jungle your secret home,
You left but a wisp of memory behind,
Then disappeared, to another time.

Stonehenge builders, what was your design
Constructed of rocks, were you leaving a sing?
You built your masterpiece, then went away.
And, what's left of your work? Only Disarray.

Earthlings, with mushrooming nuclear clouds,
Causing total destruction, as our home it enshrouds.
Will we make a rimose globe of our planet of blue?
And will WE become a lost civilization too?

TO CARL SAGAN.........

Who once uttered those now famous words "Billions and billions".
Whose chizled profile has enthralled and thrilled millions.

Who was told as a child "They're lights in the sky, kid."
And grew to a man of scientific wit.

To the man who made science a "Cosmic Connection"
And polished his speech to undeniable perfection.

He is often Fulminant and, yes, opinionated,
But has "billions" of explanations for what he has stated.

We absorb and ponder on what you are sayng,
We calculate and understand what you're relaying .

But, Alas, Dr. Sagan, enough is enough,
You've convinced us already, we're made of "star stuff".

DEATH OF A SHOPPING CENTER

The parking lot is nothing more than cracks running off in their own zig-zag directions......out of sight.

There are smatterings of dead grass erupting onto the deserted aging concrete-a dismal portrait in black and white.

Bare light poles, still standing, are being devoured by armies of brown weeds at their bases.

While the buildings seem to shrink into the earth at the beginning of dusk- staring at you with their black window faces.

Steel and brick shops cower together in a pale, lifeless cluster- blending with the gray evening sky.

Truly an image from The Twilight Zone-a visit to the Outer Limits-The death of a shopping center...........nobody knows why.

A haunting sight in these modern times-All the is left is a Kroger Store on the west end-the only sign of life.

A mere cry for mercy,A final last breath,
A sad demise.

COSMIC SYMPHONY

Pulsars beat out the rhythm of eternal time,

Radio waves furnish melody without a rhyme

Nebulae offer colors of your music sublime,

Suns threwn throughout the dark reveals a design.

A cosmic symphony for all to find.

ZERO G

WE HAVE SPECIAL TOOLS, OUT HERE IN SPACE

TO BUILD AND LIVE LIKE THE HUMAN RACE.

WE HAVE PRESSURIZED SUITS TO WEAR OUT THERE IN ZERO G

WE HAVE EXERCISE EQUIPMENT AND T.V.

OUR BEDS ARE HAMMOCKS HOOKED TO THE WALL,

THINGS JUST FLOAT AROUND AND NEVER FALL.

THERE IS STILL ONCE QUESTION AND I BESEECH YA____

HOW TO DO YOU KEEP THE MOZORELLA ON TOP OF THE PIZZA?

THE PERPETUAL VISITOR

SHIMMERING ACROSS THE EBONY SKY,
LEAVING A TRAIL OF BLAZING ICE,
MAN ASKS THE QUESTION "WHY?"
DOES THIS VISITOR ONLY ENTICE
THE INHABITANTS OF PLANET EARTH,
WHO WATCH IT'S DANCE THROUGH THE STAR-SPECKLED HEAVENS.

THIS GLOWING, STREAMING PHENOMENON
THAT MYSTERIOUSLY ENCHANTS US
WHEN IT VISITS EVERY 76 YEARS
WE HAVE TO TAKE OUR CHANCES.

IT ENTHRALLS US AND FILLS US WITH QUESTIONS
YET MOST OF OUR ANSWERS ARE MERELY SUGGESIONS

ABOUT OUR PERPETUAL VISITOR................
HALLEY'S COMET!

BY ME......IN 1981.....
Sheila Halterman