Space Launch Poem by Charl JF Cilliers

On a day like any other day
when all the instruments agreed
I watched a spear of flame
ascend till the fire
was as small as a star
and was extinguished
and the tug with earth was broken,
and as I gazed upwards I wondered:

will man who journeys so far
above us into solitude and darkness
find out who we are? hear a heavenly
choir? sing to the music of spheres?
see the faces of God?

or will he who journeys so far
return knowing just this:
in us there are journeys more desolate
still, uncertain, endlessly far:
where there is no one in wonderment
watching the sky as the flame
of the world grows small
as a star that shone
once in the glare of the dark:

as the tug of the world is broken,
will he who must journey so far
in himself journey on,
when even starlight is gone?