Astro-genesis

Lagoon and other nebulae


Spheres and spires and funnels
metamorphose and disintegrate
amid the mass of interstellar
dust and gas from worlds expired,
recycled as placental clouds
drawn in by force of gravity,
quickening to spirals
around denser embryonic cores,
whorls and whirlpools,
carousels in space
transformed to spinning gyres
that heat as they rotate, becoming
blinding incandescent orbs
as out of cosmic debris,
chaos seeks its counterpoise
in form, and out of swirling,
inchoate confusion,
stars are born.




Nebula NGC 604


A cosmic pomegranate
sowing iridescent garnet seeds,
fluorescing and candescing,
birthing swarms
of scintillating bees,
NGC 604 should bear
a name commensurate
with creativity
that sprays graffiti
on a massive scale,
the glowing pellets bursting
like gargantuan neon grenades
through fifteen hundred
light years of the galaxy,
in colours that evoke a million
psychedelic peacock tails,
morphing into visions beyond mind's
assumed parameters,
presenting forms imagination
cannot replicate,
phantasmagoric spectacles
the camera lens cannot contain,
synaesthetic imagery
no language can embrace…