Robert David Michael Cerello
Four Sonnets from The Stellar Road, c. 2007
Sonnet 7--Great Hopes
Great hopes are whispering now, keeping apart,
Hugging to shadows. Still, their talk is 'high'.
Such men of far suns speak; the "long result;,
Of planets new that whirl 'round alien stars...
Some whisper towers that challenge brave new skies;
Some demand constitutions written new;
Some dwell on energies and epic flights,
Of voyage, exploration, trade... But Life--
Terrestrial and transhuman--much absorbs
Their keen desires. The Age to come. Preferred--
Some seed for growth, rather than waste their sum
On foes to reason. If such 'tsars' ignore,
Overlook, interfere, curse, persecute--
These think of far Tomorrow--for they serve
The Way of Stellar Man--Life absolute...
Sonnet 8--Star Kingdoms
Star kingdoms? Yes! Republics in all but name;
Changes on Terran models...The Stellar Age
See worlds united not by mere heritage
Nor force nor avarice--but as they're framed
About the beauty a constitution holds...
Here is the Age of Rights--at last--achieved,
'Realized' as produced fact, not belief...
This glory was only dreamt by men of old
As they gazed up from Earth's mud to the skies.
How could they know those worlds men would explore --
The colonies, stellar cities, the soaring domes
That human might would rear?... Gaze on honor's prize,
Loveliness future men shall soon achieve!
Behold what justice, concept and marketplace
Mean to men freed of collectives' outworn beliefs!
Sonnet 9--The Glory
To gaze upon the Galaxy (afar)
From its dark heart (engulf'd in ravening fires
Ten million times as vivid as Earth's lights are)
To sprawling arms where starworlds know the light
That brings them warmth and life! Aeons to come,
Starmen shall tread the High Road to such scenes...
I cannot live to risk, be one with them.
I shall not walk the sacred way of dreams
Which (more than any) we'll have brought to be--
Tsiolkovsky, Goddard, Hamilton, O'Neill, Ley,
Heinlein and Brackett, Leinster, Smith--yes, these
Beyond all others have limned the Starman's Way,
Which I in highest register sang praise!
Remember us--you who'll live Man's Stellar Day...
Sonnet 10--Far Seed
I cast my vision starward, this dim morn.
It pierces smothering clouds; races up, up,
Through thinning atmosphere, then space itself;
Soon it leaves Sol's quaint system, and is borne
(By strength of fantasies) to neighbor suns
And onward, onward--from that Galactic arm
(We occupy) to worlds of stars that swarm
Nearer Galactic center. These once won,
I see the day of Stellar Man, at full--
Colony worlds in millions, like gems spread far
Upon black satin Night's robe--past the harms
(At last) of accident and danger (annulled
In this brave questing)...All this and more--my creed
Of life liv'd at-the-full--my mind displays
The final victory of humans' racial seed!