As I step outside a crystal-clear night awaits me

Star gazing’s my passion and the sky views are free

 

A crescent Moon hangs in the west and soon it will be setting

Many objects I will see tonight — on that I sure am betting

 

Orion greets me with shield lifted as a warrior of old

Ancient mythologies of a bygone era are once again told

 

Many other constellations are soon to get attention

Connect the dots and use some vivid imagination

 

A patch of pale sunlight hovers close to the horizon

Disappearing over the edge — darkness again has won

 

The Milky Way band arches gracefully above me

Myriad stars in the billions, many you just can’t see

 

Venus and Mars paired closely as I look out to the west

Toward the horizon they head but now showing off their best

 

A meteor flashes and leaves behind a momentary trail

A “falling star” as it’s called will add to my night’s tale

 

More constellations are noted as I study imagined tracings

Large connections of stars that can get a person’s heart to racing

 

My binoculars I grab and I feel so very free

What more far-away things am I now going to see?

 

From gas clouds and galaxies to stars grouped in a cluster

An excitement sensed so easily, a feeling I need not muster

 

The cosmos is expanding, an evolution so very endless

The mystery is searched for, no end to this Infinite Greatness

 

From star dust we formed, a wonderful God-created unfolding

To stellar realms our dust returns, as a cosmic cradle holding

 

Next morning I tell my family about my night adventure story

Once again I had seen the sky, viewed as nature in all its glory

 

July 2013