‘Moonburst’ and Other Poetry by Sourav Sengupta

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Moonburst

I saw a comet streak across the night,
And rend the sky with fire-tipped harpoon;
While stars went out in fits of astral fright,
The comet struck and burst the silver moon.
The moon came down in shards of silver ice,
In million bolts that pierced the trembling earth;
And where each fell a magic tree did rise,
Upon its branches silver fruit took birth.
I plucked a fruit and held it in my hand:
A lucent orb that felt as light as air.
There I stood transfixed in silver beams, and—
What happened next alas I’m not aware:
__For that is when I woke from slumber deep.
__Or, could it be that then I fell asleep?

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To a Space Telescope

inspired by the images from
the James Webb Space Telescope

A million miles from your own launching place,
‘Round solar orbit at Lagrange’s post,
You peer into the wells of time and space,
To capture beams from reaches furthermost.
In your despatches wondrous scenes arrive:
Of nature’s womb where stars are born and nursed,
Of galaxies that dance in groups of five,
And dying stars in clouds of rage immersed.
Yet greater mysteries does the cosmos hide,
To fathom which our hearts shall ever yearn.
In this our quest for long may you abide,
From stars we come, to stars your gaze must turn.
__But in the vein of Keats let this be said:
__The Poetry of space is never dead.

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Sourav Sengupta is an architect by training and a human resource manager by profession. He lives and works in Kolkata, India.