Heavenly Horse Poem by Harley White

The Horsehead Nebula rears its head
in Orion Constellation
wherein hidden hooves the heavens tread
amidst waves of star formation,

or so I envision it might be
in the Hunter's celestial skies
for that icon Barnard thirty-three
whose head of a horse seems to rise

atop its dust and cloudy abode
within the turbulent locale,
silhouetted in this image mode
against illumined gas corral.

‘Twas taken with five filters varied
of standard red, green, and blue shades
which then in the picture were married
for stargazing dreams in cascades.

My fantasies to Pegasus rushed
and the fabled spring's creation
when his hoof broke ground and waters gushed
of poetic inspiration

for the Muses, known as Hippocrene.
Would I could sip from fountain too
on Mount Helicon's mythified scene,
cast here in panoramic view

with head and neck of a cosmic steed
in this nebula emission
limned through mosaic display, indeed
a stunning color rendition.

In winter it's in hemisphere north,
while summer in southern espied.
Hydrogen helps the crimson come forth
behind the dark stallion descried,

where Sigma Orionis nearby
is shining with brilliant star light.
Fields magnetic the gases supply
to channel the streams that invite

myriad figments of hinterlands
in charcoal gray tints to evoke
gossamer semblances shaped with strands,
illusive as mirrors and smoke.

Dense dusty areas of design
within the interstellar clouds
opaque and transparent parts define
where dimness astral gleam enshrouds.

NGC twenty twenty-three, oft
overlooked in the vast tableau
for the Horsehead dominant aloft,
is clearly seen at left below.

A fanciful flight in its own right,
the reflection nebula glows
in vivid portrait with pigments bright
revealing its filament flows.

And yet the spur for my verses came
from colossal spectacle of
the famous creature with Equus name
whose head hovers grandly above,

like gargantuan seahorse surging
through the stormy gaseous surf
out of unfathomed depths emerging
over an insubstantial turf,

perchance to survey this realm of Earth
from vista heights obscured to us
for whom the grasp of our sentient worth
is meshed in mind and fleshly fuss.

Off on a Pegasus I would fly
beyond the haze of worldly woe,
up, up and away in spacious sky,
to gain the gaze such sight could show.