September 22, 2003
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You already have the what, the where and the who — You know that it is we the people Who have looked up at the stars with wonder And saw our dreams of sending our own kind out there To gather the stardust from the heavens For those of us left behind. You need all the people who understand how — The scientists and the chemists and the engineers And the people who write the code That drives the computers that wake the rockets Which will lift a human being beyond the comfortable blue of our skies. Yes, we needed both the bureaucrats and the heroes, We needed those who knew how to get purse strings untied, the professionals who went to the parties of the powerful and tried to put a price tag on starlight and buy the dream for us all. But somewhere along the way the price became paramount. The answer to the last question was less easy to come by — Once an answer to "why climb a mountain" would have simply been, "because it is there." No more. The stars still shine on us from the night sky, and their invitation is still open — but the price has been deemed too high. We have lost the guiding dream somewhere in the back rooms Full of once grand and rapidly aging technology — We have achieved far more than people living only a century ago Would have believed possible. And yet, somehow, The means became the end, and we forgot That the answer to the question "why?" Is simply this — "because there is a sky." The dream is a seed; it needs good earth, And clean water, and the sun's light to grow it. If the dream has been lost in interoffice memoranda And budget amendments And a wild fear of the price we must pay — NASA, you need to do more than to prevaricate and to pray. You need to rekindle the awe. You need a poet. · · · · · ·
Resources Poetry on Swans Alma Hromic on Swans (with bio). Do you wish to share your opinion? We invite your comments. E-mail the Editor. Please include your full name, address and phone number. If we publish your opinion we will only include your name, city, state, and country. Please, feel free to insert a link to this article on your Web site or to disseminate its URL on your favorite lists, quoting the first paragraph or providing a summary. However, please DO NOT steal, scavenge or repost this work without the expressed written authorization of Swans. This material is copyrighted, © Alma A. Hromic 2003. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. |
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