Songs of the System

A/N: A collection of poems about the solar system. Nice. I like it, anyway. If you like this poem, I would recommend you to read In Praise of the Earth (by moi) and also Meanings. (Also by me.) Anyway, here goes!

The hot solar flare lit up my face

I gloried in it,

Then picked up the pace

The corona, the dura mater

Of all the stars

Was what I stood in;

The stars of far

Away shone back at me.

Laughing in the system's fiery heart

I continued, gazing at the Sun.

Its flares, and heat, and radiation,

Its energy, mass, jubilation.

The sun is the fiery heart

I want nothing more

Than to learn the joy and jubilation

Of this fiery core.

The chill and the heat

Of this one chill, hot one

Made me smile

On this hard rock

The difficult exterior and absent atmosphere

Made this planet all the more lovely,

As the crater I stood in crossed from dark to light.

Smiling on this first stone,

I touched Mercury.

Its warmth and heat and chill

Its frozenness, toughness, duration.

Mercury is the cold and hot mind

I want nothing else but

Than to learn the decisiveness and emotion

Of this cool and frantic stone.

The heat and weight of this ever pressing atmosphere

Decided for me that should leap, and I did.

The ancient lava cakes and deep-set valleys

Were the land that I

Walked and leaped on

The terrain of the morning star

Was what I ambled and jumped on

After leaping and dancing on this ever thick, hot place

I rested on Venus.

Its pressing and pushing and heat

Its fluidity, harshness, difference.

Venus is the conscience

I want nothing else except

To learn the pressing and pushing

Of this thickly dense rock.

A ringlet of wave curled 'round my foot

I shuddered away from it,

Then stopped and looked

At the large azure expanse

above my head

I looked down

and saw the waves performing a Mysterious Dance.

Running into the stumbling waves

I stopped, considering the Earth-

Its mountains, and valleys, and bays;

Its brooks, meadows, strange caves.

The Earth is the soul

I want nothing other

Than to learn the concepts and thoughts

Of this planetary mother.

Dusty red soil stood still in an absent breeze

I stopped to cradle it in my hands,

Then let it fall down again.

Rusting soil,

Once considered bloody but is barren

I brushed it from my hands and

Cried in an absent breeze.

Sobbing on Mars, this border planet,

I studied the land, features and all

Its empty channels, and plains and plateaus

Its barren deserts, burgundy soil, craters

Mars is the sadness

There is nothing more for me than to

Learn the lessons and gain the help

Of this red rock.

Gases swirl in time with an endless tune

I danced with them,

Studying the storms.

A swirling one was ever present

Forcing me to dance and dodge in its path.

I continued to dance to the beat of the swirls

And slowly began to smile.

Dancing and grinning on Jupiter, king of all

I danced with it all-

Its swirls, and hard core, and whirls of vapor

Its Red Spot, thick gases, choking density

Jupiter is the challenge

All I wish is to

Control and learn from

This fluid sphere.

Creamy yellow is the background for me as I glide,

Gliding over

the ice shards and pebbles ever caught here.

I swung to one side, to another,

Gliding all the way, laughter was present.

I glide to my own crazy will,

Narrowly missing a stone or three.

I swept across Saturn's rings,

The sweep of feet on ice was the only sound.

I contemplate the gliding, and the pulling in of things, and the sweeping grandeur

The music, the soaring, the beauty.

Saturn is the laughter,

All there is for me

Is to incorporate this orb of happiness

Into my everyday life.

Farther than ever

I'm out now,

Sitting on a globe of violet-green.

Rings sparkle above me.

Tilted and crazy,

But come to rights with itself,

This planet is.

The planet eddies around my knees.

I stare down onto Uranus,

Staring and thinking of the many wonders of this world.

The only one to be flipped, and the colors, and the eddies.

The cool warmness of the planet, the distance from the Sun, the bubbling.

Uranus is the quiet hope,

The quiet voice that speaks to me.

I have this hope

I only must hope more.

Balancing precariously on a

narrow shelf of rings,

I whisper thoughts here.

Blues and greens flow beside me.

I see a blue storm,

A failed try to impress others

And bring wanted attention,

Hardly ever noticed.

(Why? Ask yourself. You know as well as I.)

I smile sweetly and sadly into its face,

And continue to

whisper secrets into Neptune, whispering

about

The unknown beauty, and hardship, and failed attempts

The blue storm, the sadness, the awesomeness of the green.

(Oh, Neptune, every now and then you distance yourself

From us,

I know why,

Secret Pride.)

Neptune is the secret pride,

And there is nothing more,

Than to keep this quiet,

Erasing the awful thoughts I have had.

Sitting on an icebound, out of the way lump,

I arrange my clothing about me,

Turning to look at the Stars.

Quietly pondering on this planet,

So so so far away from it all;

So far away,

yet wanted and reached for.

Meditating here on Pluto, I face the Stars.

Considering the distance, and the space, and the challenge.

The desire, the hope, the dream.

Pluto, you are my hopeful challenge;

There is nothing for me but to reach you.

(I turn to fly

Away from this delicate cluster of worlds.

Lessons which these have taught me are good indeed,

Now teach them to yourself, then to others.

The only thing that I mention now,

Is the truth that not all is doomed.

Life is great,

And Life is good,

And never will it end.

For in the thousand tomorrows,

Are in the glittering lights of the Stars.)