Starburst Celebration Poem by Harley White

In eighteen eighty-seven was found
by astronomer Lewis Swift
a seeming nebula to astound
with guise of glowing cloud adrift.

From Earth more than two million light-years
later studies showed it to be
a small ‘starburst' type, so it appears,
of irregular galaxy.

Hubble suspected this could be a
part of what's called the Local Group.
IC 10 in Cassiopeia
now is listed within that troop.

Lying quite near the Milky Way's plane,
the interstellar matter dimmed
most x-ray sources under its reign,
which Chandra's composite has limned.

Bill Snyder helped with illustration,
an amateur astronomer,
from his Heavens Mirror location,
hence credits bear his moniker.

With great and fast astral formation
its evolution's dramatic.
An outcome of waves gravitation
would make scientists ecstatic!

Starburst is also name for flower
resembling the one in the sky
since its blooms erupt in a shower
of shooting shrubs that catch the eye.

Myriad marvels endlessly come
from Nature's abundant array,
like raspberry flavor, scent of rum
at the middle of Milky Way.

Off into fantasy I am led
to saunter on poesy lane
where'er the lyrical footsteps thread
around my gossamer domain…

Over its strings the cosmos musing
strums a stellar symphonic strain
with ineffable art infusing
a celestial tonal refrain

that builds a bridge of wandering themes
to life's auroral flushes faint
along wavering vistas of dreams
imbued with ethereal paint,

plus sounding depths of holey sockets
where dimensions are out of joint,
only to plunge in spacetime pockets
thus to fiddle with counterpoint.

Then cymbals crash in starburst thunder
as a fireworks celebration
brimming with stelliferous wonder,
virtuosic in creation

via infinity's discernment.—
Meanwhile sentient beings mortal
ere they meet their earthly adjournment
still are seeking wisdom's portal.—

Blackhole mergers could be occurring
inside galaxy IC 10
or neutron star boundaries blurring
with collapses beyond our ken.

The starburst nature is but a phase
in a galaxy's unfolding.
Might mankind's sight yet develop gaze
enlightened in its beholding?

Will humans their senses purify
to discover treasures within,
resplendent as stars that shine on high,
and deeper awareness begin?