‘The New Explorers’ and Other Poetry by Daniel W. Galef

The New Explorers

See this figure?
That’s the Spirit
Sent up way back when to scout.
She rolls around
And samples rocks
To see if any life’s about.
We sent her up here
Ages back
To serve in the great Search for Life.
And she does so,
Never ceasing,
Tho’ she meet with woe and strife.
If you ask her
Why she cares so,
Why she pores over one task only,
She’ll say “for Progress,”
She’ll say “for Science,”
But really, just because she’s lonely.

Fell Hand Fell

(Please read so it is palindromic. Is it so? Read, please!)

Glinting glimmers in the light
glitter and reflect the sun:
shards and shrapnel, shining bright,
many and yet also one.

As pretty as it ever was,
the vase straight as a plumb it does.

From the middle marble column,
it looked so airy, light, and free;
it stood so prim and proud and solemn.
The vase presented properly:

Stately, true, and standing tall,
(until Old Foss disturbed it all,
stately, true, and standing tall).

The vase, presented properly,
it stood so prim and proud and solemn,
it looked so airy, light, and free;
from the middle marble column,

the vase straight as a plummet does.
As pretty as it ever was,

many and yet also one:
shards and shrapnel, shining bright,
glitter and reflect the sun:
glinting glimmers in the light.

Daniel W. Galef has published rhyming, metred poetry in Light Quarterly, Measure Press, and the Lyric, among others, and also writes prose fiction and plays, the most recent of which was The Original, produced this past spring at the Players’ Theatre in Montreal and directed by Nia Evans.