The Value of Starlight

“Starlight, starbright
First star I’ve seen tonight”
A nursery rhyme of old

“Twinkle twinkle little star.
How I wonder where you are”
A 19th Century English lullaby.

Starlight magic reserved for children and play
shooting across the universe to astronomy, poetry and military strategy.
But what happens between childhood and science?

Long before a toddler even knows of the scientific research,
when adolescents are busy with education in and out of school and playground,
as adult’s go about daily work of family, employment and community.........

Silver-gold starlight in a velvety black sky
bouncing from star to star, sun and moon ~ planet to planet
says grandly that we are gently surrounded by a starlit community.

Starlight, caught in eyes and imagination,
is a first sparkling picture of the universe outside of humanity.

Starlight, caught only at night, 
is private, quiet and magically true.

Starlight, hidden by drifting clouded skies,
minimized by unblinking earthly masses of organized lights
is forever present above moisture laden blankets, in open field or ocean.

Science may explain the why’s, wherefore’s, distances and light years,
but starlight in a velvet moonless sky catches heart and soul.
Humanity’s criss crossing rules of order fall away into nursery rhymes and lullaby.

  “Silently, one by one, in the infintie meadows of heaven,

Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels,”

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie