Saturday, January 5, 2019

Ndaba Sibanda writes



The Bright Sunlight That Outshines The Dimmer Stars



When it appears fully well-lit from the Earth`s perspective ---

sun-lit, roughly every month, we view lunar splendor in action! 

Sometimes I wonder how it is like to visit an uncharted territory ---

to blast off and land on the lunar surface, ( I hear your roar of well!)

Talk of a Neil Armstrong special, talk of me walking in style! Differently!

Actually, picture me running more rapidly than any soul ever expected! 

Consider this: they say the gravity on the Moon is 16.5 % (1/6) what one

would experience on Earth, and so if I jumped a bit for good measure, 

guess what—bingo—I could prove that flying is not the privilege of birds!   



I guess one would have to overcome the weak attraction of the surface 

and hop over as one explores the Earth`s only natural satellite,

I mean the fifth-largest natural satellite in the Solar System

that enables one to weigh less on it than one would do on the Earth;

Yes, I retaliate: one that makes one`s jump higher than normal!

And as one moves faster in space, time goes slower, talk of an age

bonus and being over the moon in the truest sense of the word!

Wait a minute… envision me looking for any evidence of life

as I step on elegant dust filled with pebbles – and finding none!

What an awe-inspiring experience that could be!! 
 A painting of astronaut Pete Conrad on the lunar surface. It is heavily textured with moon dust and lunar tool and boot marks
 Astronauta Optimus Maximus -- Alan Bean

Two astronauts hold a rover that is slipping down a lunar slope. Painting is textured with moondust, lunar tools and bootprints
Slip Slidin' Away -- Alan Bean

2 comments:

  1. In 1969 Alan Bean was the lunar module pilot on Apollo 12, the 2nd lunar landing. After he retired from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1981 he used his ability as a painter to chronicle his impressions of space. He mixed moon dust, which had collected on the keepsake patches from his space suit, into the paint for "Astronauta Optimus Maximus," his lunar portrait of Apollo 12 commander Pete Conrad, and he used his own bronzed Apollo boot to texture "Slip Slidin' Away." He titled the latte painting after Paul Simon's 1977 song:

    Slip slidin' away
    Slip slidin' away
    You know the nearer your destination
    The more you're slip slidin' away

    I know a man
    He came from my home town
    He wore his passion for his woman
    Like a thorny crown
    He said Delores
    I live in fear
    My love for you's so overpowering
    I'm afraid that I will disappear

    Slip slidin' away
    Slip slidin' away
    You know the nearer your destination
    The more you're slip slidin' away

    I know a woman
    Became a wife
    These are the very words she uses
    To describe her life
    She said a good day
    Ain't got no rain
    She said a bad day's when I lie in bed
    And think of things that might have been

    Slip slidin' away
    Slip slidin' away
    You know the nearer your destination
    The more you're slip slidin' away

    And I know a father
    Who had a son
    He longed to tell him all the reasons
    For the things he'd done
    He came a long way
    Just to explain
    He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping
    Then he turned around and headed home again

    He's slip slidin'
    Slip slidin' away
    You know the nearer your destination
    The more you're slip slidin' away

    God only knows
    God makes his plan
    The information's unavailable
    To the mortal man
    We work our jobs
    Collect our pay
    Believe we're gliding down the highway
    When in fact we're slip slidin' away

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for your well-researched and informative addition.

    ReplyDelete

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