Stellar Glitter Poem by Harley White

An earthquake in California occurred,
‘twas a big one in nineteen ninety-four,
and knocked out the power which also spurred
a phenomenon strange in urban lore.

It seemed in the predawn hours of the night
that there was a spectacle to be seen
for across the sky in silvery light
was a giant cloud with gossamer sheen.

Residents shaken who took to the street
were flabbergasted by such a display
of stelliferous heavens bittersweet
o'erspread up above in our Milky Way.

Emergency phone calls were made in fright
to know if disaster was overhead.
Some asked observatories if the sight
was cause for alarm or impending dread.

No, they were told, there was nothing amiss,
in the case of the firmament at least;
lack of light artificial led to this;
thus visual clarity had increased…

How sad for those living in the city
that ‘light pollution' bedims the dark skies.
Though lamps are needed, it seems a pity
to hide our grand galaxy from their eyes.

In contrast, the Hubble gives vision vast.
E S O four six one dash o three six,
for instance, shows stellar glitter amassed
as lonely dwarf grouping out in the sticks,

or twenty-two point three million light-years,
in Sagittarius constellation,
far off from the earthly laughter and tears
of humanity's fleeting duration.

The galaxy's nearly the darkest known
with a disk that's extremely extended
in the ‘Local Void' and almost alone
it is said of this star system splendid.

Well that is the only one anyhow
which astronomers feel they are certain
resides in this huge spatial ‘void', for now,
till fresh evidence pulls back the curtain,

albeit there are about fifteen more
that have been provisionally revealed;
still science may merely be at the shore
of the ocean depths of what is concealed.

While the image appears to be replete
with a number of star congregations
they're beyond the ‘void' on ‘black velvet sheet',
hence distinct as celestial creations.

The glitter sidereal seems serene,
nonetheless looks are often misleading.
It's being hurled from the ‘empty' ravine
or in frantic departure is speeding…

I have read a galactic ‘South Pole Wall'
has long been unnoticed though close in view,
mind-boggling in its gargantuan sprawl,
a discovery heralded as new!

If wonders abundant lie in the maze
of the great unfathomed cosmic immense
obscured to our gaze by illusion's haze,
what more might there be that we cannot sense?