Dark Cosmic Cloud Poem by Harley White

Black seems like nothingness, maybe that's why
nebulae dark looked like ‘holes in the sky'
as Herschel exclaimed when he saw on high
a spot in Orion that caught his eye.

Mostly astronomy has proven these
(proven by science in parentheses)
with added scrutiny in infrared
to be interstellar dark clouds instead,

although it turned out what Herschel had seen
was a region in space almost swept clean,
thus more of a hole than earlier thought,
akin to a genuine spatial naught.

Barnard six eight for astronomer named,
dark in its stretches while starrily framed,
termed a ‘Bok globule', tongue twister to say,
is so close to home in the Milky Way

that no star's evident, not even one,
between this black cloud and our beaming sun,
for it is less than five hundred light-years
far off from our realm of laughter and tears,

dreams for the future, remembrances past,
on earth where humankind's lot has been cast.
Toward Ophiuchus constellation
lies this molecular cloud creation

half a light-year across, in mass just twice
that of the sun, our jewel beyond price.
Light is absorbed by high concentration
dust and molecular gas formation

which also accounts for the cold intense
that's vital for novel stars to commence,
since first the cloud must collapse, so the size
contracts, making the temperature rise

in its interior, whereby the heat
causes ignition for new star-birth feat.
And thus thereafter, from dark cloud forlorn,
on some cosmic morn, a star may be born…

Despite the fact that at visible light
nebula Barnard six eight is opaque,
the Very Large Telescope brings to sight
thousands of blocked background stars, lest one make

the assumption mistaken of a hole.
Regarding holes, meaning black holes so-called
which in current studies play a great role,
I wonder if views will be overhauled.

Deep in the hinterlands of cosmic space
outside our astronomy database
what further dimensions might have their place
beyond what the finite mind can embrace?

Perchance fresh knowledge someday may appear
about dark matter, black holes, and things dark,
and ultimately cosmic skies could clear
when fueled by fathomless wisdom's spark

the disorders of senses to dispel
once surer illumination is shone.
Only time's echoing footsteps will tell
from reach of faraway future unknown…