THE GIFT
My Lord, what a morning,
My Lord, what a morning,
O my Lord, what a morning
When the stars begin to fall.
–Entrance hymn,
(Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine,
Second Sunday after Epiphany,
January 15, 2006)
After seven years of inter–
stellar wanderings, the spacecraft
that journeyed halfway to Jupiter,
beyond the Earth-Moon Orbit,
came back today.
It bears precious freight—
ageless dust motes, the most
primitive particles in the universe,
gathered from the outer limits—
from the time when there was no time,
when there was universe inchoate—
undifferentiated matter—the becoming thing
that was always there.
It brings nameless particles that existed
eons before our solar system was formed,
before there was water,
before there was earth. Timeless,
they were there when life was
but a thought in the mind of God.
As the craft approaches atmosphere
crowds gather at the Dougway Proving
Ground in the Utah desert,
their pupils reflecting its red–
orange glow in the pre-dawn sky.
Cheers ring out in the arid air.
Parachutes open. Softly,
it floats earthward with its cargo—
the building blocks of the universe
and of you and of me. Quietly,
it touches earth with its gift
of star dust.
– Velma Jean Reeb
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Copyright ©2009, by Velma Jean Reeb. All Rights Reserved.
So imaginative –a beautifulpoem. I love the imagery.
I had the pleasure of first reading this poem “The Gift” when it had just been written not long before. It is as beautiful and timeless now as it was then, and what moves me most now is its gentleness and forcefulness combined in one place. The poem expresses awe in the grand and in the minuscule simultaneously, and this is a strength. Kudos to Velma Jean Reeb.
I agree that the poem is beautiful, as in the setting forth, securely.
WOW! Velma Jean — you have done a good thing!
Your poem takes me/us back
from that place in the universe light years away
yet so close within each of us as to be us!
I love your words, the journey, the awareness
you engender and raise, the thought, the
Connectedness amongst us all and through all Creation!
“When life was yet a thought in the mind of God” -
how profound — your beautiful words!
How grateful I am for your perceptions!
THANK YOU!
And the opening lines from the entrance hymn at
the Cathedral:
“My Lord, what a morning:
the Second Sunday after Epiphany,
January 15 (my birthday), 2006
Velma, Congratulations!!
Your thoughtful and beautiful poem took us out of this world into a journey of the Universe.
There you made us meditate on simple things such as ageless particles and profound thoughts such as “when life was but a thought in the mind of God”
You poetically presented the beautiful contrast of creation!!
Thank you!
thanks for a “cosmic” read!! really took my into space and back to earth, with the feeling of the preciousness and the awe of LIFE! Thank you so much for your sensitivity. Cliff
Hypnotizing read that leaves you lost in space, although for a while, before you are brought back home! The poem alone is pretty effective imagery at its best. The narrator’s voice is successful, showing Velma’s storytelling skills; the reader sees the spacecraft clearly as he/she travels back in time into vertiginous space to an earlier unknown primitive period of ages untold; long ago before life on earth began, there was a strange life-birthing thing so infinitesimally small in the universe that humans today cannot even comprehend or identify with its substance and form, this uncanny element, as the poet puts it, is the source of life. Now we know the origin of our existence: flying dust motes of antiquity, or as the poet states, a thought in God’s creative mind. Philosophers, neuroscientists, and artists need not search for our true purpose anymore; for we come from dust and to dust we shall return. Great poetry! The concept is part science, part belief, reflective of what God thinks and does with life. Like the dust motes, we too are conceived from one divine ingenious creator that bears witness to our astral reality, and I imagine that such work of art is a gift one must value and share always. Keep the fine writing Velma!