If there be galactic winds
Blowing through thinnest space
Do they pause to greet the earth
And breath upon her face?
If there be galactic winds
Passing without a trace,
Do they pass another world
And greet another race?
2/24/77
Starchild (Starborn)
What better wilds than these
Of spinning stars and galaxies?
I'm calm. My mind's at ease
Lost within such wilds as these.
I feel the universe expand.
My mind breaks its weary band.
The stars replace my hands and feet.
My heart becomes a pulsar's beat.
Galactic winds course within.
My star-cells die and are born again.
2/13/77 & 9/29/77
Heavenly Spark
"What within, what heavenly spark
Draws you forth into the dark?
"What in the heavens do you see
That's hidden from my eyes and me?
"Each night when others yearn for bed
Here, out beneath the sky you're led.
"To see the woods lie dark and deep?
To watch the creatures as they sleep?
"To feel the grass so damp with dew?
Please tell me, boy, what do your do?"
Yet still without a reason why
His gaze remained within the sky
Until slowly he dropped his head.
His face aglow, he softly said:
"Oh, Grandfather, do you not see
The ships that sail this cosmic sea?
"It's their beacon's flicker and spark
That calls me forth into the dark.
"Can't you breath of the stellar wind
Against which now their masts do bend?
"Don't you feel the galactic force
Which keeps them straight upon thier course?
"Tell me at least you've yearn to fly
To join them up beyond our sky!"
He looked away and sadly sighed.
For how on earth could I have lied?
For the glory his face had shown
Was something I had never known.
Yet I'd seen the burning in his eyes
As they were turned toward the skies.
And from that moment on I knew
What some day all will know is true.
Some day he, too, shall sail that sea
That's lost forever to such as me.
circa 1977
EXTRAterrestrials
What kind of life
Lies beyond
This speck of dust
That we live on?
Sci-fi writers' minds
Do swell
With many creatures
Born to dwell
On the planets
And in the dust
That lie beyond
This earthen crust.
They make such wonders
To behold
With skins of green,
Blue and gold.
And this human form
They do distort
With necks too long
Or legs to short
To be of use
to anyone
Unless, of course,
It's just for fun!
And the terran animals,
Too,
They've become
An intelligent zoo!
"This is a being from
Far off space.
He's from a very
Superior race.
"And you mustn't,
Mustn't laugh
If he looks a bit
Like a giraffe!"
There are chortling eggplants
And walking rocks
And a ball of light
That some how talks!
I'm afraid of my tree,
My cat, my chair
--Any may have intelligence
There!!
These tales do have
Their worth
But all these things
Are of this Earth!
So at the stars
I still stare
And ask, "What really
Lives up there?"
Circa 1978
I may not be so eloquent
Nor terribly prolific
But when it comes to turning rhymes
Gee, am I terrific!
2/16/78
We plunge through the atmosphere.
The clouds fall away.
We know the umbiblical pull
Like children gone astray,
Knowing none can hold us back:
We will have our way!
We break the terran bonds
And breach the starry way!
3/17/78
Let us stand between the earth and sky
And let the others, laughing, pass us by.
4/14/78
Silver Light
Silver Light
Breath of night
Tell me, tell me what is right!
Unearthly fright
Sends me on inward flight
When other humans come into sight,
Repulses me from cities' blight,
And from all who choose to fight
Because another's skin is not as white
Yet demands to have an equal right,
Or those who merely wish to show their greater might
Of limb or leg, weight or height.
Silver light
Breath of night
Tell me, tell me what is right!
Unearthly fright
Sends me on inward flight
When other humans come into sight.
4/18/78
Too many others have gone before
They won't care any more.
Too many others have gone before.
I'll just be one more.
Because too many others have gone before.
Just another gone to war;
Too many others have gone before;
To die on land, sea and shore;
Too many others have gone before;
Not an object of tale or lore;
Too many others have gone before;
Just a single digit more;
Too many others have gone before;
No wife waits for me at the door
She, too, having gone before.
When was it? I don't know any more,
Too many others have gone before.
In spite of the green which they wore;
Too many others have gone before;
In spite of the flag which they bore;
Too many others have gone before.
The bullets through their bodies tore
So too many others have gone before,
And I -- damn this fight -- am just one more.
For too many others have gone before.
4/28/78
Within the blackest night
Is found the brightest light
For the most brilliant glow
Is that which light will never know.
8/9/78
May the sun set on your left hand,
The stars rise on your right,
And may your face be ever turned
Toward the whirling night.
9/18/78
Quiet Dreamer
The winds blow fiercely through the night
Yet still above them is the light
That draws my curiosity from shadowed streets
And heavy heads of folk who should be long in beds.
And I do stop to stare...and dream...
What is it really like up there?
Yes, it's late. I know it well.
And the streets aren't safe, some tell
But I can't merely walk on by
I want to turn and cry
To some poor man just passing by:
"Look! Look up in the sky!"
But he wouldn't understand
His life is ordered, set, and planned.
He has no time for stars, for dreams....
So I only whisper, "It's much later than it seems."
For high above the howling winds
Is the music of the spheres
Which only the quiet dreamer
And the crazy man hears.
At last I walk on still high upon my dreams.
Oh, yes, my friends, it is much later than it seems....
Circa 1978
They tell a tale that long ago
Before the burning rains
A dull gray ship rose up so
From these very plains.
It rose up beyond the sky
Toward the stars of night
And out among them it did fly
Faster than their light.
1988
The Highest Court
Old Harry was a lawyer.
He talked trials night and day
Until the age of eighty-three
When he upped and passed away.
As the sexton shoveled dirt
Upon the coffin much ferruled
A voice from the grave cried "I object!"
And thunder rumbled "Overruled!"
1988
Supernova
[For the late Jim Loudon]
Clouds lay flat and low
Across the wintry night
Set aglow in ghastly orange
By the city's light.
An icy wind springs up
And drives the clouds away,
Revealing to the Earth below
A sky as bright as day.
It isn't the crescent moon
That makes the sky so bright
But a great and glorious star,
Shining pure and white.
Sirius is meek beside it
And Orion scurries way,
But this marvelous, brilliant star
Shines on into the day.
A supernova, astronomers say,
The death of a mighty star.
And they set about to calculate,
How big, how bright, how far.
But its light which came from far away,
Born of sheering pain,
Slowly will begin to fade,
Cooled by tears of fiery rain.
But the memories shall linger
And spread before its face
Like shock waves from the guest star,
Traveling through space.
For shock waves churn the nebulae
Where the stars are born
And driving on the dust and gas,
They do not pause to mourn.
Trembling, they touch a cloud
--a young star at its core
And planets begin to coalesce
--NEW WORLDS TO EXPLORE!
1998
Watery-blue... with, perhaps, a tough of gray....
Like tranquil pools on a summer's day.....
The hands unbound; the lips unsealed;
In time all will be revealed....
Contents of this page are Copyrighted by Darlene A. Cypser
and may buzzards rip out your liver daily if you steal any of it.