Empyrean Reef Poem by Harley White

Ocean reefs are made by coral
builder types, in sundry frames,
crafted to resemble floral
forms though with aquatic aims.

These are ecosystems vital
called ‘rainforests of the sea'
as an honorary title
to denote their status key

in affording species varied
with a domicile marine
where those creatures long have tarried,
settled in the briny scene.

An image labeled ‘Cosmic Reef'
parallels that special place,
like sparkling undersea motif
shimmering in outer space.

The Hubble telescope each year
takes snapshot to celebrate
the genesis of its career
as celestial viewer great.

Named for the man who saw outside
our galaxy Milky Way,
Edwin Hubble knew he had spied
something beyond its array.

In nineteen ninety was its launch
the Discovery aboard,
deployed into Earth orbit staunch
to bestow the grand reward

of opening firmament's door
to the heavens vast explore
as never envisioned before,
furnishing vistas galore.

Anniversary thirty brought,
midst the pictures aplenty,
this striking astro-portrait wrought
by Hubble cognoscenti.

A nebula red gigantic
in Large Magellanic Cloud
shown with smaller blue, is frantic
to birth sidereal crowd.

One hundred sixty-three thousand
light-years afar, the splendid
tapestry raises eyebrows and
wears colors richly blended,

with stars in big one more massive
by ten to twenty times Sun.
The lesser in no way passive
is made from huge star to stun,

two hundred thousand times brighter
than the lamp that lights our days
whose glories many a writer
has sung with poetic praise.

NGC twenty twenty plus
fourteen are part of a site
in Large Cloud, which is dwelling thus
as galaxy satellite

going round the Milky abode
where life for us was fated,
in our brief ylem episode
the cosmos has created…

Richard Feynman physicist famed
for discoveries disclosed,
albeit in science acclaimed,
a work in free verse composed.

‘I stand at the seashore, alone,
and think, there are rushing waves, '
said Feynman in a pensive tone
as consciousness birth he braves.

‘Mountains of molecules make up
the surf, ' to Feynman rephrase,
and then his ponderings take up
the theme of tidal ballets

‘pounding the shore, age after age,
tortured by energy', till
novel DNA dance on stage
finds the design to fulfill

a formula for awareness,
curiousness to perplex,
of seeming marvelous rareness,
through ‘protein pattern complex'.

Feynman his reveries ending
‘stands in wonder at the sea,
wonders at wondering's wending,
atom in universe', he,

‘a universe of atoms new
out of the cradle' in thought,
matter that sprang out of the blue.—
Did earthlings emerge for naught?

Sentient beings intricate are,
ever at crossroad of choice,
forged from the remnants of a star,
yet humans could lose their voice.

If knowledge of self, surroundings
led to senses unruly
in our evolution's foundings,
have we consciousness truly?