James Tate

ObituaryJames Tate, who has died aged 71, was one of the most original and inventive American poets of his era, whose sense of humour and love of the tall story calls to mind an earlier Missouri-born master of the fable, Mark Twain.
Even though there are other poems of Tate which I prefer, like "A Vagabound" and "Poem To Some Of My Recent Poems", I couldn´t help including this one because of  NASA´s first mission to Pluto .JamesTate´s new book is out soon, unfortunately his last.
Poem by James Tate
The Icy Mountains of Pluto
A Sunbeam JourneyHow big is this great universe?
How far do the stars traverse?
Let us think in terms of sunbeams’
Travel-time on the photon streams.

Beams seen from Pluto at night
Take five-and-a-half-hours at the speed of light.
Just think of crossing the Milky Way
In a rate-per-second of one-eighty-six K,

Would take thousands of years to span
This misty nebulae admired by man.
But it’s a mere fraction of size,
Galaxies seen in distant skies.

From our perspective down here on earth
Of the universe and its unknown girth,
Infinitely larger than it appears—
To cross it would take millions of years!

How can we, God’s created, keep pace,
With the enormity of trackless space?
Overwhelmed by its massive magnitude,
We simply savor it with awe-filled gratitude.

Writers and poets take special delight
In capturing these dazzling scenes at night
Transfixed with keyboard, or hand-held pen,
Mesmerized by galactic adrenalin.