OK, it's October 4th, it's National Poetry Day and the theme is 'stars' - it's also the first NPD since I started The Ellipsiad, and the first time I've tried to write verse to a deadline on a given topic, so here goes...
Orion’s Belt
Alnitak, far triple star,
Supergiant shining blue,
Upon the great Flame Nebula,
Ultraviolet bathing hue.
Alnilam, the middle pearl,
With stellar winds contends,
A constant, bright-white anchor-point
The navigators’ friend.
Mintaka, multiple, eclipsing,
Named Arabic for ‘belt’,
A portent of good fortune,
Our predecessors felt.
Together, ‘Three Stars Mansion’,
In Chinese myths once told,
Or Weighing Beam, or Golden Grains,
Freyja’s Distaff in the cold.
Mule Deer, Pronghorn, Bighorn Sheep,
Say the Seri, Mexico,
Three Marys in Iberia,
Three Kings, Puerto Rico
Yardstick, ellwand, Peter’s Staff,
Three wise-men, each a magus,
An asterism known to all,
On the celestial equator.
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