Cosmic Eye Poem by Harley White
Cosmic Eye
There's an eye of stellar vastness
glaring down with grim steadfastness
(looking Earthward with aghastness?)
in constellation Cygnus.
Such perspective is conducive,
unlike worldly ones illusive,
to a viewpoint all-inclusive
of nebulaic bigness.
This optical-envisioned eye
within the Swan that sails on high
in Milky Way's galactic sky
was a dying Sun-like star
which swelled much larger, till it grew
into red giant through and through
and then became white dwarf askew,
peering at us from afar.
That cosmic gaze- what can it see,
our waning days, humanity
bordering on insanity?
[I think that‘s said in fairness.]
The eye might note with clarity,
(perhaps a trace of charity?)
tellurian barbarity
and foolish unawareness,
may spot our great stupidity,
delirious cupidity,
with limitless lucidity
in perceptive passing glance,
discern a capricious story
of mindless swaggering glory
(cautionary allegory?)
in our madcap mortal dance,
how we're blind to consequences
or to karmic recompenses
with disorders of the senses
leading humankind astray…
If only that unblinking stare
which seems all-seeing everywhere
could rouse us from our shared nightmare
to a true enlightened way!
This planetary nebula is known as Kohoutek 4-55 (or K 4-55) . It is one of a series of planetary nebulae that were named after their discoverer, Czech astronomer Luboš Kohoutek. A planetary nebula is formed from material in the outer layers of a red giant star that were expelled into interstellar space when the star was in the late stages of its life. Ultraviolet radiation emitted from the remaining hot core of the star ionises the ejected gas shells, causing them to glow.
In the specific case of K 4-55, a bright inner ring is surrounded by an asymmetric, fainter layer. The entire system is then surrounded by a faint red halo of light emitted by ionised nitrogen. This multi-shell structure is fairly uncommon in planetary nebulae.
http: //www.spacetelescope.org/images/ann0906a/
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Image credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) . Acknowledgment: R. Sahai and J. Trauger (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
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I would like to translate this poem
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5/3/2024 3:52:00 PM # 1.0.0.1119
If only that unblinking stare which seems all-seeing everywhere could rouse us from our shared nightmare to a true enlightened way! From the New Hubble image you made a moral and ethical literature bringing to the point of an eye which is cosmic and watching the humans from above. very nice imagination and powerful. thank you. tony
Thank you very much for your attentive reading of my poem and warmhearted, thoughtful comment.