Pointillist Starscape Poem by Harley White

In the seventeen hundreds one April night,
while surveying the cosmos, Herschel caught sight
of a galaxy new, small, sidereal,
brilliantly lit in ethers empyreal.

An astronomer with a groundbreaking view,
William Herschel composed and played music too.
Then later came Hubble with tuning fork scheme
thus to further the classification theme

of galactic objects by morphology
adding greatly to modern cosmology.
What Herschel discovered was a spiral one
that's millions of light-years away from our Sun,

though its shape lacks the coils that seem to unwind,
with central bulge missing and arms undefined.
Now with intricacies as never before
a telescope captures the details galore.

Bright NGC four seven o seven lies
in Canes Venatici's Hunting Dog skies.
Varied observations this image comprise,
seen through the Hubble Advanced Camera eyes.

Stelliferous pinpoints and flashes of blue
on celestial canvas of ebony hue
show deep shades of cyan as well as turquoise
for newborn stars sprinkled with masterly poise.

Could it be a Seurat, Signac, or van Gogh,
in the brushwork distinctive we've come to know,
as unperceived painter with stellar command
has dotted this starscape with pointillist hand?

Those who turn their gaze upward find astral arts
all over the heavens, which tug at their hearts
and awaken great gratitude for life's breath
on the Earth, where we sojourn from birth to death…