Star Poems
Joe Gonnella
Star Poems
Joe Gonnella
Draco: Thuban
Suspect variable stated Smyth once-upon-a-time Ptolemy’s pole and before Moses centering all spin straight to Khufu’s heart gazing obliquely up to a refused blue despite wives’ tales well told blatant in wishful daylight hidden in forbidden night a random measure of careful confusion sport’s illusion gambled then reconciled the king’s breath counted contained by an emperor’s intention blessed by a necromancer none ever right none ever wrong worth confirmed by what robbers stole
Canis Major: Sirius A & B
Orion’s whelp rainbow low then spiteful white Christ’s nearest herald save one a true false dawn ruby fights sapphire emerald bickers with amethyst evil augury inauspicious fire shining like copper ancient ruddy light cuts diamond miasma to fallen pearl two arrows’ radial pace converge into each other as opposing waters rise, meet, commingle and move on a dark pup warps her proper curve a cow asleep in a slow boat foretells the heliacal rising of a thirsty jackal-headed bird inundation’s urns up-turned to quench a dry country sheiks will seek what the Dogon knew until heaven’s sweat denies the lone white dwarf’s duplicity fugitive leader scourge of days canicular turncoat red a gift for different eyes giant diminished before its time
Taurus: Aldebaran
Ruddy ruby deer burning auroch’s heart God’s eye above a minaret Mithra’s heavenly bull on San Clemente’s ceiling Marduk’s bull of light Buddha’s ghost leads us past Lumbini’s green to Rohini’s bank past hoofed Osirus on Dendara’s wall past Seti’s tomb at Thebes Hercules’ bested beast horns the horns of a wild ox at Altamira at Lascaux strong bull, beautiful of birth lead camel in a train of camels interloper amidst lesser lights moving against their tide closer than Hyades’ cluster larger and brighter than our sun defining night stair step by stair step by Athens’ record of its ancient occultation Halley deduces proper motion a red dwarf for companion Minoan acrobats vaulting Europa’s bull’s consecrated horns Io on the prowl a white tiger walks through fire rain attends its heliacal rising torch-bearer Persia’s guardian star follows heaven’s furrow to greet an equinox and eat hot cross buns baked on Adamnán’s stone at Tara’s feast on Candlemas when Satan’s secrets are revealed
Eridanus: Achernar A+B
From under heaven a river rises below Jove’s throne water born of tears oblate blue beauty circumstellar ion halo least spherical of all her sisters brightest of all her brothers double doubling back on itself deep and long squat and hot Hesiod named her where Jason’s giovani found their fleece Be stars bend to other fields other pulses lucid circling serpent river of Paradise meridian Nile steeped in black Euphratan rage Oceanus Sihor unreal emptiness certain absence non-negligible departures from normal orbits forbidden emissions leading to excess infrared Secchi saw those furrowed lines when water was all there was when water was all there was not when water was all there was going to be when water was more than it could become lost in a Euxine sea the Heliades shed amber tears for wayward Phaeton their only brother cast by an angry god into crooked liquid muscled water Cetus’ stream where demons embrace naked concubines and Dante lights his brightest torch to illuminate his un-companioned way and steers his great ship to harbor deep inside a multi-foliate white rose
Rigil Kentaurus: AB+C
Horse-man half-beast’s arm bends to blue heaven earned heaven paid for by a life given to inhospitable Hercules Eratosthenes named you Chiron star-gazer rabbit-slayer handyman well-disposed to lead the leaderless to righteousness fate writ in sky’s fire Achilles’ mentor easy risings hard zeniths cruel settings your bejeweled right forefoot worshipped at dawn on the Nile by mortal eyes worth your weight in what ten-thousand ships can carry unity, discovered to be double at Pondicherry, yielded its period by the Cape of Good Hope in Africa a slow companion flared for another’s eyes Hipparcos proves by parallax Proxima’s intimacy to our lonely Sun as he gazes back and hopes for words he’ll never hear from two brothers who hunt missing lions with burning spears
Argo Navis: Carina: Canopus
Silver fire startles Neptune wild diamond spirit-bright radiant gold gone polar blue Ptolemy sulks inside Serapis’ walls until he sights Aratos’ rudder heroes walk this way javelins pierce cloud wicked monster speaks on the journey to its tree goal of Phryxus’ flight Orpheus strums order to others’ oar strokes as beautiful to a Bedouin as his belovéd eternities’ blind eye rises where Sparta’s snake-bit pilot was laid low Posidonius’ degree decreed by fits and starts herald of fall’s equinox god of rising waters Voyager’s beacon Vespucci’s Eden Osiris’ gate where shadows enter and depart birds of ill-omen worry fair women camels weaned and on their way guide us through Arrakis’ wastes where old men shoulder weapons to ride worms and envious saints snuff out Cleopatra’s brighter fires to access an after-life only those who voyage home can know
Lyra: Vega
Falling eagle with an object in its beak thing of things delivered by a storm bird’s claws dry tendons across a tortoise shell empty as an un-written sonnet until Mercury comes upon it and teaches song to silent strings when Orpheus plays what Apollo tuned waves obey frets of fire free chords of air heaven is gained Eurydice breathes rocks rise swooping vulture star ancient pole pole to come apex of the sun’s way first photographed at Harvard on the 17th of July 1850 pale blue white arc light sky’s fiddle hero’s harp David’s kinnor Arion’s zither light’s messenger weaving woman at the wrong end of Magpies’ Bridge far from what she loves Tu Fu’s fan catches fireflies like these rays within rays azure corona rings within rings iron phoenix rises as bells fade stand below this dark fear the sapphire sign lonely in howling black boreal blue glare beckoning from night’s empty dream garden to doom’s dunes beyond cosmos’ edge just out of reach in silence be silent so as not to wake what sleeps in an immensity where only gods can be
Taurus: Pleiades
Blood red bull’s eye follows six-faced Skanda’s sisters into their separate unities Nebra’s sky disc keeps them close no chance alignment weds them to their rising Messier measures one direction steps on a cosmic distance ladder Hipparcos’ parallax wrong by a weighted mean destined to be redeemed by another’s random error at Roche’s limit they’ll find their freedom or be drowned 1000 confirmed suspects in this crowd old Atlas’ children aboard a cloudy train golden bees on a black mane cut like Agni’s fire disturb Diwali’s dream tidal forces bind these diamonds into a brooch to bring good luck to patient men who worry worthless beads to make amends to creatures they condemn unfurl your sails embrace these spiral arms and measure lithium’s exhaustion as you go wingless doves escape to a darker sky bearing ambrosia to a drunken king braided fireflies on a fibula pinned to virgin night’s cloak al graspo de ua to be reborn in bottles Bacchus seals brown dwarfs warm no one
Boötes: Arcturus
Outcast pearl, coral bead, yellow topaz beast watcher, bear badgerer, tempest bringer as violent on arrival as on departure christened early, invited late, fellow of gods second calf of sleeping lion shepherd of heaven by Job’s cart, Jacob’s bier, ploughman’s wain Arcturus and his sons lead to the southern chambers where risen Spica is skewered on a lance for harvesting what others planted those who bring false suit or deny a debt will be noted and judged as will the humble, the virtuous, the good, the liars, the cheaters and the thieves when bloody-fingered dawn reaches for Boötes’ throat grape clusters must be cut or Dionysus dies haul up your ship, heap up stone, draw the bilge plug to drain the rain that would rot keel and gunnel stow your folded wings away from wind and hang your rudder above the smoky hearth until time returns to way find by eye alone no matter intrinsic oscillation or circling sub-stellar ghost sister an equinox between her knees steer your zenith star south unwavering toward home
Taurus: Hyades
Rainy fires vex a broad bull’s head endless journeys mountains and rivers without end a drowned moon troubles exiled men Bacchus’ baby-sitters born again a boiling sea where sucklings seethe Radagast’s disaster comes and goes horror’s lair on a dark star’s lake beyond space and time each member converging as they recede to immortal eyes 132 by Van Beuren’s count many more detected by Lowell’s blink projection faint dwarves can’t hide this close to human eyes radial velocity measured in recession a poet’s sad companions weeping as they sleep a dry mother’s moist daughters mourning their brother lost to the boar he hunted Pythagorean V or triangular spoon camel’s bearing Aldebaran’s wealth to woo bright women who once doubted his net worth rich in doubles for those with small glasses the violation of night’s border announced by slaughtered rabbits’ quiet cries
Canis Minor: Procyon
Boat-bailer sky’s carpenter wolf-eyed agate Chased by the greater dog swim down a southern river Amazon’s sister across heaven’s sea ascension trumps declension you and your degenerate companion the faint white dwarf devoured by your glare bark at Anubis growl at Acteaon elude Helen you are not yet the red you will become your father has not yet met his end your breath is not yet bated your dog is breathing still what Thermopylae must lose Artemisium will gain Maera howls ultraviolet light makes life unlikely pillars for a priestess water crowfoot x-ray coaxed out onto thin ice to dance with those from whom you stole you’ll finally comprehend the bloody end fate meant just for you
Scorpius: Antares
Contention’s syntax, Mar’s rival, Orion’s slayer giant fiend who stung Phaeton’s horses heaven mandates Quetzalcoatl from those claws blood red warrior hero no god his guardian no angel his own rapine shown from Almagest through Alfonsine to Rudolphine tables turned a demon glows inside a scorpion’s heart a lusty prince prepares to battle an azure dragon his story told in gold on silk inside a cube Indra’s carnelian’d ear hears all saffron whispers of a severed heart the lie Sennacherib’s astrolabe utters lightning spreads vermillion seed for kings to harvest Job steals Isis’ lance to skewer night in search of wisdom that passes understanding inside a ceremony none are left to execute at Argos’ ruined temple crested basilisk or mitred serpent, cockatrice, speckled toad or smiling infant gazing at their foes before the rooster crows less than perfect at occultation brightest left of center vapid misshapen variable playing tunes for a green companion last breath of a self-luminous body shadowed by a revolution girt by fire surrounded by a cloud what cold Ptolemy lettered inferior in brilliancy is brighter, now, to other, warmer eyes
Auriga: Capella
Brahma’s sapphire heart opens to Diana’s eyes systole and diastole sacrifice and artifice torn horn thrown to heaven by a grateful god for all that bounty Melisseus’ daughters milked charioteer’s arm-born kid for whom shepherds will die and revive Amalthea mixes antimony into an elixir cornucopic paint-horn rainbow bright mother of he who makes canoes duplicitous mistress of the game married to duel masters of the night mint, mugwort, mandrake hidden hawk ready to kill a kangaroo a feathered king reaches out his hand open Karnak’s door to enter Eleusis Ptah’s cat’s eyes close Aben Ezra’s open Saint Jerome breathes easy one war is won glory has a crown another war will come
Leo: Regulus
Antediluvian ultramarine burnished white disputed indigo gone ruddy yellow become golden glow gloomy, guardian lion’s heart occulted by the moon a rare Venus smothers spring’s harbinger Judah’s sickle ready to strike westward facing couching sphinx ancient center tilting east Copernicus’ diminutive king, ruler of teeth, tools, tablets heaven at his beck and call when fire scorches lion’s hide floods will come mortal arms can’t out row snow-melt spread your sails wide over seething seas riddle me another riddle who are you? who am I? who were we? who will we be? cowardly dragon harnessed horse main deformed by non-negligible perturbations of a dwarf both circled by twin companions no one happy none sad in Arabia, Persia, Greece or Rome wherever home may be east, west, south, north cardinal character scheme repeated continent after continent equinox threads equinox solstitial colure meets crystal sphere glory, riches, power yours and yours alone born beneath Persepolis’ lintel royal star on the breast of a beast no one’s victim liege to none no throne higher than your own
