Sidereal Generations

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             My genealogical family tree
             was traced by a relative distant,
             thus uncovering ancestral names for me,
             of some who had seemed nonexistent.

             The past came alive in my fantasy world
             with visions of settings dramatic,
             as I felt myself in scenario hurled
             that verged on a theme operatic.

             Some fancies akin rose from imagery mix
             of five different wavelengths and hues
             in Wide Field, of NGC one eight six six,
             with orange-red old stars, young in blues.

             It’s a globular cluster considered strange
             in Dorado constellation found,
             with sidereal periods of wide range,
             hence a stelliferous bunch renowned.

             One hundred sixty thousand light-years away
             from Earth, at Large Magellanic’s brink
             (a galaxy cloud turning round Milky’s sway),
             this massive multitude seems to sync

             youthful stars with others from former ages,
             through metallicity analyzed,
             dissimilar in stellar saga stages,
             which left astronomers quite surprised,

             because it appeared unexpectedly young.
             James Dunlop, credited with the act
             of discovery, still has his praises sung
             for listing a host of stars in fact.

             Indeed, it was in eighteen twenty-six that
             the Scottish stargazer spied the group
             noteworthy, and catalogued where it was at,
             assigning a label to the troop.

             In the case of this cluster Hubble captured
             with varied residents in the crowd,
             perhaps a new star batch was manufactured
             in rendezvous with a huge gas cloud,

             as in a cosmic orchestral creation
             with melodies that interrelate,
             scored by composer of stellar vocation
             for astronomical concert great.

             An opus like Handel’s, supernally grand,
             might sound and resound in the cluster,
             with symphonic reach universally spanned,
             in radiant star-studded luster,

             while music mellifluous echoes in spheres,
             or so my reveries rhapsodize,
             to harmonies chorused by stellary peers
             that resonate through celestial skies.

             Generations of humankind here on Earth,
             measured in cadenced metrical bars,
             could be likened to fugue theming death and birth…
             Might we be analogous to stars?

             As is known through the wisdom of long ago,
             all reality’s Nam Myoho Renge Kyo…



             ~ Harley White



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Some sources of inspiration for the poem are the following…

Image and info ~ Different generations...

Image and info ~ Some of the Stars in this Cluster are Almost as Old as the Universe Itself While Others Formed in a Second Generation. It Looks Young and Old at the Same Time...

Image and info ~ Hubble Spots Young, Massive Globular Cluster NGC 1866...

Further 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

Image explanation ~ This Hubble image shows NGC 1866, a massive globular cluster located in the constellation Dorado, some 160,000 light-years away. The image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible region of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Five filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.

Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble