By John C. Mannone
Standing alone in the silent hills,
hands folded on the controls
of a great radio telescope, I pray
to hear what the heavens declare.
My ear, lifted in reticulations of steel,
presses its aluminum timpani
to her bosom, the soft hiss
of her breath like a kiss in the night.
I touch her face, every smooth
piece of sky, every wrinkle
of starlight. I cannot see with my eyes
but feel the Braille of her, with the tips
of my fingers telescoping the dark,
read her contours with oscilloscopes —
every jot and tittle
that fabrics the heavens.
I do not know how to hear
her susurrations, but I cup my ear,
point the antenna-stethoscope
towards her heart. For a moment,
I understood why Robert Frost
would choose something like a star,
but I plead beyond the stars.
I feel her pulse,
sense the cosmic echoes there,
listening with my own heart.
… I hear the small still whispers.
John C. Mannone, nominated three times for the Pushcart, has current and forthcoming work in The Baltimore Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Linden Avenue Literary Journal, Ayris, Prairie Wolf Press Review, Tipton Poetry Journal, Pedestal, Rose Red Review and others. He’s the 2013 Rhysling Chair, the poetry editor for Silver Blade, an adjunct professor of physics, and a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador. Visit The Art of Poetry at jcmannone.wordpress.com.
A little back story: Traditionally, I share a radio astronomy poem after my lectures at Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA) Conferences held at Green Bank, WV, which most attendees like, sadly, there was no time to squeeze “Beyond the Stars” in at the 2012 conference. The remarkable engineering of and excellent science with the Green Bank Telescope, in part, inspired the poem. Image only: https://science.nrao.edu/images/430/gbt2.jpg, or for more information, see https://science.nrao.edu/facilities/gbt/. But even more so, what motivated this poem is perfectly echoed by a WV poet, Laura Bentley, who I had the privilege of interviewing for the April/May 2009 issue of the Journal of Society of Amateur Astronomers while I was their senior editor. When I asked her how she came about in writing her radio astronomy poem, “The Quiet Zone: Green Bank Observatory” (which appears on a poster with the Green Bank telescope and appears in her collection, Lake Effect (Bird Dog Publishing, 2006), http://www.lauratreacybentley.com/, she said. “Struck with the enormity of telescopes sheltered by mountains and set on lush farmland, complete with a few weatherworn barns and sheds, I noticed on the periphery of daunting technology and stunning landscape, a small cemetery. It made me ponder, yet again, the vast universe, distant stars, man’s place in it all, the wonder of life, and how short our stay.” I share the same sentiment; and for me also, it begs the spiritual.
If you enjoyed my work (and managed to find a copy of Laura’s excellent poem), then you might also like these other radio astronomy poems: (1) “We Are Listening” by Diane Ackerman (http://www.panhala.net/Archive/We_Are_Listening.html) anthologized in Dark Matter – Poems of Space (ed. Maurice Riordan & Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 2008) and (2) “Radio Telescopes” by Philip Salom (Australian Poetry Library, http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/salom-philip).