Discovery Poem by gershon hepner

DISCOVERY

A special thrill exists, of course,
in finding something new,
discovery of unknown shores,
a formula, a view
of life, thrill coming from the first
encounter with a part
of that great whole for which the thirst
to know more is an art
to which the ones who travel far
on earth or in the mind
aspire, like a distant star
they hope one day to find,
decoding hieroglyphics or
explaining how the brain
encodes its information for
all numbers, words and pain.
For what is new there comes a thrill
so great it can’t be reckoned,
but happiest are those who will,
when seeing things a second
occasion, be no less inspired
than on the first, while those
who when the third time comes feel fired
are poets, I suppose,
for poets know they must explore
again, again, and then
another time, and look for more
than seen before again.

Robert Pinsky, the Poet Laureate from 1997–2000, read a poem on NPR regarding the Mars Sojourner Mission on 7/14/97.

7/14/97,3/17/98,1/22/09