Celestial Angel

ω

              An angel we have seen on high
              sweetly watching o’er the skies,
              guardian spirit, floating nigh
              where the swan-like Cygnus lies.

              Bright above it, starlight’s shining.
              Dark the cloud beneath its glow.
              What the tidings it’s divining,
              be they gladsome, full of woe?

              About two thousand light-years far
              that nebula emission,
              where budding astral newborns are
              which bloom into fruition,

              labeled S One O Six in brief,
              has assumed an hourglass guise
              shown in this cosmic leitmotif
              as heavenly being wise.

              Some sense an epic narrative
              of verse macaronic toned
              with golden rule imperative
              that’s for centuries been honed.

              Bluish wings like those in snowscape
              fashioned on the winter ground
              mimic figure in Van Gogh-scape,
              after Rembrandt model, crowned,

              blown from winds at center stellar
              into that iconic shape
              for a yuletide storyteller
              to leave listeners agape.

              Hot gas in ripples and ridges
              with cooler milieu combines
              as bipolar jetted bridges
              sculpt the ethereal lines.

              A frenzy of fervid motion
              belies its facade serene
              like turbulence on an ocean
              in seemingly placid scene.

              Man has blundered from war to war
              blind to future, deaf to past
              seeking deities to implore
              somewhere midst the cosmos vast.

              In these distempered times we know—
              as did Sappho long ago
              invoke a goddess, from below—
              when fortune’s winds falsely blow

              let’s urge that angel visitant—
              Venus in her ageless rhyme—
              to come in pity vigilant,
              a needful presence sublime,

              thus to animate stargazers
              regardless of the season
              to be inner space trailblazers
              through cause, effect, and reason,

              plus to tap the enlightened state
              from where true wisdom’s springing,
              creating beatific fate,
              limned in that angel winging.

              Then shall grand sidereal choirs
              serenade in countless throngs
              caroling forth our hearts’ desires
              with a jubilee of songs

              and help awaken hope’s rebirth
              where’er their utterings flow
              for everlasting peace on earth
              from Nam Myoho Renge Kyo…

              ~ Harley White

           

* * * * * * * * * *

Inspiration was derived from image and article, Celestial ‘Snow Angel’ Dazzles in Hubble Telescope Photo” ~ December 15, 2011.

Also additional sources such as, Hubble Serves Up a Holiday Snow Angel.

Sharpless 2-106 ~ Wikipedia.

Also, Celestial Snow Angel 3D: Star-forming Region Sharpless 2-106 ~ to watch in 3D.

Some poetic inspiration was derived from the Christmas carol Angels We Have Heard on High.

Also, Head of an Angel, after Rembrandt ~ Vincent van Gogh ~ 1889.

Additional info ~ Copies by Vincent van Gogh.

Half Figure of an Angel (after Rembrandt) ~ Vincent van Gogh ~ 1889.

A Hymn to Venus [Aphrodite] ~ poem by Sappho (c. 630 – c. 570 BC) ~ translation by Ambrose Philips.

In addition, inspiration derived from the teachings and writings of Nichiren Daishōnin...

Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō means to devote our lives to and found them on (Nam[u]) the Utterness of the Dharma (Myōhō) [entirety of existence, enlightenment and unenlightenment] permeated by the underlying white lotus flower-like mechanism of the interdependence of cause, concomitancy and effect (Renge) in its whereabouts of the ten [psychological] realms of dharmas [which is every possible psychological wavelength] (Kyō).

The reason that we continually recite Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō

This image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows Sh 2-106, or S106 for short. This is a compact star forming region in the constellation Cygnus (The Swan). The image was released on Dec. 15, 2011. The bipolar star-forming region, called Sharpless 2-106, looks like a soaring, celestial snow angel. The outstretched “wings” of the nebula record the contrasting imprint of heat and motion against the backdrop of a colder medium. Twin lobes of super-hot gas, glowing blue in this image, stretch outward from the central star. This hot gas creates the “wings” of our angel. A ring of dust and gas orbiting the star acts like a belt, cinching the expanding nebula into an “hourglass” shape.

Credit: NASA/ESA