Cosmic Fountain Of Youth Poem by Harley White

In rhyme ‘Song of Autumn in the Springtime',
Rubén Darío in lyric's last line,
though mourning the passing of youthful prime,
exclaims, ‘Ah, but the golden Dawn is mine! '

For ages, mythical stories were told
about a fabulous fountain of youth
whose magical waters were said to hold
the power to turn the old young in truth.

Herodotus, a historian Greek,
in ancient times spoke of a special pool
where flesh of bathers was ‘glossy and sleek',
longevity there becoming the rule.

In various other cultures as well
these tales of mysterious springs went round
of waters miraculous nonpareil,
alleged to be panaceas renowned.

The legend in sixteenth century grew
in prominence due to the so-called quest
of Ponce de León, the Spaniard who
supposedly was by that search possessed.

Those explorations no longer exist
for such a liquid elixir outflow
with supernatural properties kissed—
though water itself is precious we know.

Still there is a ‘fountain of youth' on high
appearing to stream baby stars galore
a hundred thousand light-years in the sky
in northern section of ARP one nine four.

This galaxy troupe has complexes vast
of super star clusters, so it is said,
some linked with gravity's pull unsurpassed.
The turmoil mighty in ones overhead

resulted in semblance of astral thread
which looks like a falling gas bridge between
or radiant droplets in stellar spread
of heavenly rain in celestial scene.

These forces when galaxies interact
and gravitative attraction takes place
can star evolution hugely impact
thus causing formation at rapid pace.

Termed also UGC six nine four five,
this system encompasses grouping strange
with top two nuclei seeming to strive,
though early on, for total merger change.

A third more normal is off to the right
above with pair in the throes of a meld,
a structure not warped by galactic plight,
while spiral below its figure has held

with swirly star-making arms of its own
where baby-blue stellar bodies are bred,
by Hubble's resolution clearly shown
to be in back of the ‘fountain' instead

of having any connection at all,
albeit the low one's closer to us
than those up above the cascading fall.
Whew, what a colossal optical fuss!

Yet even so, the illusion persists
as does the figment of the fabled fount
along with imagined, fanciful twists
expressed in many a vivid account.

ARP one nine four, galaxy pattern rare,
enlivens the large constellation's field
of Ursa Major nicknamed the Great Bear
where famed Big Dipper design is revealed.

Arising from strong gravitation force,
here azure blue jewels in dazzling flares
burst forth in the brilliant cosmical course
of gas, dust and millions of infant heirs.

Perchance inchoate creations unborn
might blossom and bloom in those boundless domes
like worlds with an ‘ever-brightening morn'
to paraphrase Oliver Wendell Holmes

in ‘Fountain of Youth', a poem he penned,
where shining ‘o'er evening's silvery flood'
the ‘young crescent moon' beams hope without end,
and ‘spring is eternal, each leaf in bud'.

Yet while that vision is merely a dream,
the cycles of death and rebirth go on
with futures empyrean still agleam,
for somewhere there's always a newborn dawn.

Returning to ballad cited at start
whose verses enthused the muses in me,
the poet composed in impassioned art
the phrase ‘synthesis of eternity'.

So lest we be left with naught but chagrin
from loss of mirage of immortal life,
the true reservoir can be found within
where geneses serendipitous rife

are wrought in fathomless psyche innate,
reality's deepest dimension's crux,
at least in my view of beingness state,
our essence inherent in ceaseless flux,

beyond an ostensibly bolted door,
the passageway into forevermore…