planets

Exploring mysteries

/ Fran Haley / Leave a comment

Imagine my recent astonishment on sitting down to compose a blog post and finding a question already typed into the empty template…I wrote about this occurrence in The question.

Every day since, a new question has appeared in my empty post template, as if my Muse has suddenly taken control of WordPress. Some magic or benevolent ghost is surely at work here…thank you, whoever and whatever you are. I am compiling your daily questions for future use. I shall respond to today’s: “What skills or lessons have you learned recently?”

I am learning, Oracle-esque Blog, even as I write this post with a dozen windows open behind it, how to operate a Dobsonian reflector telescope.

Here’s why:

December nights
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn
shine bright

beckoning:

Mere mortal
made of stardust

(for all humans are)

—come and see
our infinite mystery…

And so I must
before my temporal self
sleeps in Earth’s crust

Stay tuned on this astronomical adventure, friends…

Planets

/ Fran Haley / 2 Comments

The Boy and I
walking under
the evening sky:
he notes the bright, bright star
glittering high

—not a star, say I
that’s Jupiter

and that’s Saturn,
right over there—

I take out my phone
open an app
hold it to the sky
aim at these ‘stars’

up pop the planets
on the fly

—oh, the awe
in The Boy’s eyes—

he shows me his watch
I didn’t know
he’d set its face
to the solar system
planets positioned in orbits
line by line:

I know where they are
but I didn’t know I
could actually see them
in the sky

—what app is that??

—SkyView, say I

in an instant
The Boy has downloaded it
and is turning every which way
phone pointed
at the night sky

—Mars is right there
by the streetlight! he cries

I LOVE this,
says he,
by and by

I watch him
with a sigh
remembering how
he first fell in love
with planets
around age five

The Boy’s solar system artwork, created for me about twenty years ago.
It remains taped to the back of my bedroom door.