Celebrating Perseverance on Mars!

 

Hello everyone –

 

In this edition of Quotemail, we celebrate NASA’s Perseverance rover, which landed safely on Mars on February 18^th to begin its intrepid mission: to seek out signs of life (both past and present) on the Red Planet, Mars. Here are a few poems to help us commemorate this great achievement as we look forward to new discoveries and new questions along the way.

 

“Wanderers”

By Walter de la Mare (1873-1956)

 

Wide are the meadows of night,

And daisies are shining there,

Tossing their lovely dews,

Lustrous and fair;

 

And through these sweet fields go,

Wanderers amid the stars --

Venus, Mercury, Uranus, Neptune,

Saturn, Jupiter, Mars.

 

‘Tired in their silver, they move,

And circling, whisper and say,

“Fair are the blossoming meads of delight

Through which we stray.”

 

“If Only We Had Taller Been”

By Ray Bradbury (November 1971)

Written in Commemoration of the Mariner 9 Space Probe Achieving Orbit Around Mars

(Recited at New Horizons Mission Control in July 2015)

 

The fence we walked between the years

Did bounce us serene

It was a place half in the sky where

In the green of leaf and promising of peach

We'd reach our hands to touch and almost touch the sky

If we could reach and touch, we said,

'Twould teach us, not to, never to, be dead

 

We ached and almost touched that stuff;

Our reach was never quite enough.

If only we had taller been

And touched God's cuff, His hem,

We would not have to go with them

Who've gone before,

Who, short as us, stood as they could stand

And hoped by stretching tall that they might keep their land

Their home, their hearth, their flesh and soul.

But they, like us, were standing in a hole

 

O, Thomas, will a Race one day stand really tall

Across the Void, across the Universe and all?

And, measured out with rocket fire,

At last put Adam's finger forth

As on the Sistine Ceiling,

And God's hand come down the other way

To measure man and find him Good

And Gift him with Forever's Day?

I work for that

 

Short man, Large dream

I send my rockets forth between my ears

Hoping an inch of Good is worth a pound of years

Aching to hear a voice cry back along the universal mall:

We've reached Alpha Centauri!

We're tall, O God, we're tall!

 

THE LIGHT OF STARS

(A SECOND PSALM OF LIFE)

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

 

The night is come, but not too soon;
And sinking silently,
All silently, the little moon
Drops down behind the sky.

There is no light in earth or heaven
But the cold light of stars;
And the first watch of night is given
To the red planet Mars.

Is it the tender star of love?
The star of love and dreams?
Oh no! from that blue tent above
A hero's armor gleams.

And earnest thoughts within me rise,
When I behold afar,
Suspended in the evening skies,
The shield of that red star.

O star of strength! I see thee stand
And smile upon my pain;
Thou beckonest with thy mailed hand,
And I am strong again.

Within my breast there is no light
But the cold light of stars;
I give the first watch of the night
To the red planet Mars.

The star of the unconquered will,
He rises in my breast,
Serene, and resolute, and still,
And calm, and self-possessed.

And thou, too, whosoever thou art,
That readest this brief psalm,
As one by one thy hopes depart,
Be resolute and calm.

Oh, fear not in a world like this,
And thou shalt know erelong,
Know how sublime a thing it is
To suffer and be strong.

 

Until next time –

Rob 😊

 

A Salute to the Winter Stars -- and Mars!

Hello everyone –

 

Here at last is my long-delayed tribute to the winter stars, including a salute to the NASA team that put the Perseverance rover on Mars last week!

 

FROM THE ORPHIC HYMNS

Editor’s Note: The annual cycle of the seasons and its effects on our natural surroundings are recurring themes throughout world literature. The Orphic poets – a guild of ancient Greek philosopher-bards named after their legendary founder, Orpheus – celebrated the changing of the seasons, the wonders of the natural world, and their lofty ideals in poetic chants, several dozen of which were preserved in written form after centuries of oral transmission. In the poetic forms of their prescientific age (ca. 1000-500 BCE), the Orphic poets chose to personify the forces of nature, the celestial orbs, and abstract ideals in order to explain how and why the natural world and the human social order function in the ways that they do.

 

Orphic Hymn #6: To the Stars

With holy voice I call the stars on high,

Pure sacred lights and genii of the sky.

Celestial stars, the progeny of Night,

In whirling circles beaming far your light,

Refulgent rays around the heavens ye throw,

Eternal fires, the source of all below.

With flames significant of Fate ye shine,

And aptly rule for men a path divine.

In seven bright zones ye run with wandering flames,

And heaven and earth compose your lucid frames:

With course unwearied, pure and fiery bright

Forever shining through the veil of Night.

Hail twinkling, joyful, ever wakeful fires!

Propitious shine on all my just desires;

These sacred rites regard with conscious rays,

And end our works devoted to your praise.

 

FROM THE POEMS OF H. P. LOVECRAFT (1890-1937)

Editor’s Note: H. P. Lovecraft is regarded by literary scholars as the “Edgar Allan Poe” of the 20^th century. He was an imaginative author of “weird fiction” – a genre that combines science fiction, fantasy, and horror – and also an accomplished poet. His work has inspired, among others, the creators/writers of Babylon 5 and Doctor Who.

 

“Polaris” (1920)

 

Slumber, watcher, till the spheres,

Six and twenty thousand years

Have revolved, and I return

To the spot where now I burn.

Other stars anon shall rise

To the axis of the skies;

Stars that soothe and stars that bless

With a sweet forgetfulness:

Only when my round is o’er

Shall the past disturb thy door.

 

“Winter Stars” (1920)

By Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

 

I went out at night alone;

The young blood flowing beyond the sea

Seemed to have drenched my spirit’s wings —

I bore my sorrow heavily.

 

But when I lifted up my head

From shadows shaken on the snow,

I saw Orion in the east

Burn steadily as long ago.

 

From windows in my father’s house,

Dreaming my dreams on winter nights,

I watched Orion as a girl

Above another city’s lights.

 

Years go, dreams go, and youth goes too,

The world’s heart breaks beneath its wars,

All things are changed, save in the east

The faithful beauty of the stars.

 

“Where My Heart Will Take Me”

(Theme from STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE)

Lyrics by Diane Warren

 

It's been a long road, getting from there to here.

It's been a long time, but my time is finally near. 

And I will see my dream come alive at last. I will touch the sky.

And they're not gonna hold me down no more, no they're not gonna change my mind.

 

Cause I've got faith of the heart.

I'm going where my heart will take me. 

I've got faith to believe. I can do anything. 

I've got strength of the soul. And no one's gonna bend or break me. 

I can reach any star. I've got faith, faith of the heart.

 

You can watch the opening sequence of STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE here, featuring the theme song as performed by Russell Watson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPn-lTytfGo

 

Until next time – keep looking up! 😊

 

Rob

 

Happy Lunar New Year on Abe Lincoln's Birthday!

Hello everyone –

 

Next Friday, February 12, marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year in the traditional Chinese calendar. The New Year (or Spring Festival) usually occurs on the second New Moon after the Winter Solstice (December 21 or 22). And so, on Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday holiday, the Year of the Ox will begin as the Chinese calendar year 4719 dawns in East Asia and around the globe.

 

To celebrate the Lunar New Year, I have selected two poems for you to enjoy. “Ring Out, Wild Bells” is a New Year poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and “Kubla Khan” (by Samuel Taylor Coleridge) celebrates the splendor of medieval China under the aegis of Kublai Khan (reigned 1260-1294), the grandson of Genghis Khan. Readers may find Tennyson’s sentiments especially relevant as we move forward together after a contentious political transition and continue to fight the global Covid-19 pandemic. A beautiful musical rendition of “Ring Out, Wild Bells” by the Crofts Family can be found @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTjo62ehrd4.

 

“Ring Out, Wild Bells” (1850)

By Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

 

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,

The flying cloud, the frosty light;

The year is dying in the night;

Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

 

Ring out the old, ring in the new,

Ring, happy bells, across the snow:

The year is going, let him go;

Ring out the false, ring in the true.

 

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,

For those that here we see no more,

Ring out the feud of rich and poor,

Ring in redress to all mankind.

 

Ring out a slowly dying cause,

And ancient forms of party strife;

Ring in the nobler modes of life,

With sweeter manners, purer laws.

 

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,

The faithless coldness of the times;

Ring out, ring out thy mournful rhymes,

But ring the fuller minstrel in.

 

Ring out false pride in place and blood,

The civic slander and the spite;

Ring in the love of truth and right,

Ring in the common love of good.

 

Ring out old shapes of foul disease,

Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;

Ring out the thousand wars of old,

Ring in the thousand years of peace.

 

Ring in the valiant man and free,

The larger heart, the kindlier hand;

Ring out the darkness of the land,

Ring in the Christ that is to be.

 

“Kubla Khan” a/k/a “Xanadu” (1816)

By Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

 

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

 

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round:

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

 

But O, that deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!

A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As ever beneath a waning moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her daemon-lover!

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced;

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,

Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:

And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever

It flung up momently the sacred river.

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:

And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far

Ancestral voices prophesying war!

 

The shadow of the dome of pleasure

Floated midway on the waves;

Where was heard the mingled measure

From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

 

A damsel with a dulcimer

In a vision once I saw:

It was an Abyssinian maid,

And on her dulcimer she played,

Singing of Mount Abora.

Could I revive within me,

Her symphony and song,

To such a deep delight ‘twould win me,

That with music loud and long,

I would build that dome in air,

That sunny dome! those caves of ice!

And all who heard should see them there,

And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

Weave a circle round him thrice,

And close your eyes with holy dread,

For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

 

Happy Lunar New Year to one and all!

 

Rob 😊

 

Celebrating Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion in Our American Democracy

Hello everyone –

 

As we reflect on the recent peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next, I would like to share with you some classic reflections on the nature of the American Republic and its unfolding principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Growing steadily through the decades, and not without setbacks, from one generation to the next, we continue to cherish and increase our understanding of the ideals of unity in diversity, liberty, and justice for all. Our perception and practice of these core values of our Republic have expanded over time, and no doubt these will continue to grow as the future unfolds before us. Our society is not perfect – but we are learning and growing up into our ideals while the rest of the world is watching and learning from us.

 

Excerpt from George Washington's Letter to the Jewish Community of Newport, Rhode Island (1790)

“The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for giving to Mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”

 

“Columbia the Gem of the Ocean” (1843)

By David T. Shaw & Thomas A. Becket, Sr.

Editor’s Note: This patriotic song served as an unofficial national anthem for the United States until 1931. It was especially popular during the Civil War Era (1861-1865).

 

1. O Columbia! the gem of the ocean,

The home of the brave and the free,

The shrine of each patriot’s devotion,

A world offers homage to thee;

Thy mandates make heroes assemble,

When Liberty’s form stands in view;

Thy banners make tyranny tremble,

When borne by the red, white, and blue.

When borne by the red, white, and blue,

When borne by the red, white, and blue,

Thy banners make tyranny tremble,

When borne by the red, white and blue.

 

2. When war winged its wide desolation,

And threatened the land to deform,

The ark then of freedom’s foundation,

Columbia rode safe through the storm;

With her garlands of victory around her,

When so proudly she bore her brave crew;

With her flag proudly waving before her,

The boast of the red, white and blue.

The boast of the red, white and blue,

The boast of the red, white, and blue,

With her flag proudly floating before her,

The boast of the red, white and blue.

 

3. The Union, the Union forever,

Our glorious nation’s sweet hymn,

May the wreaths it has won never wither,

Nor the stars of its glory grow dim,

May the service united never sever,

But they to their colors prove true.

The Army and Navy forever,

Three cheers for the red, white, and blue.

Three cheers for the red, white, and blue,

Three cheers for the red, white, and blue,

The Army and Navy forever,

Three cheers for the red, white and blue.

 

“The New Colossus” a/k/a “The Statue of Liberty Sonnet” (1883)

By Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

 

“E pluribus unum.” = “Out of many, one.” (Founding Motto of the United States)

 

“Longe vivat Democratia!” = “Long live Democracy!” 😊

 

Rob

 

Reflections from "Ulysses"

 

Hello everyone –

 

Quotemail returns from its annual hollydaze break for a new year that I hope will be happier and healthier for us all. I had been planning to share some poems about the stars and the night sky this time, but events that shocked our nation (and the entire world, too) took place on Wednesday that inspired me to strike a timelier, more reflective tone with the first Quotemail of 2021. Here, in its entirety, is the classic poem “Ulysses,” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson – one of my all-time favorite poems, which reminds us that it’s never too late to begin again, to explore new frontiers, and to keep on striving to reach a newer world.

 

“Ulysses” (Published in 1842)

By Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

 

It little profits that an idle king,

By this still hearth, among these barren crags,

Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole

Unequal laws unto a savage race,

That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.

I cannot rest from travel; I will drink

Life to the lees. All times I have enjoyed

Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those

That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when

Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades

Vext the dim sea. I am become a name;

For always roaming with a hungry heart

Much have I seen and known — cities of men

And manners, climates, councils, governments,

Myself not least, but honored of them all, —

And drunk delight of battle with my peers,

Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.

I am a part of all that I have met;

Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough

Gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades

Forever and forever when I move.

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,

To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!

As though to breathe were life! Life piled on life

Were all too little, and of one to me

Little remains; but every hour is saved

From that eternal silence, something more,

A bringer of new things; and vile it were

For some three suns to store and hoard myself,

And this gray spirit yearning in desire

To follow knowledge like a sinking star,

Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

 

This is my son, mine own Telemachus,

To whom I leave the scepter and the isle,

Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfill

This labor, by slow prudence to make mild

A rugged people, and through soft degrees

Subdue them to the useful and the good.

Most blameless is he, centered in the sphere

Of common duties, decent not to fail

In offices of tenderness, and pay

Meet adoration to my household gods,

When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

 

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail;

There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,

Souls that have toiled, and wrought, and thought with me,

That ever with a frolic welcome took

The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed

Free hearts, free foreheads — you and I are old;

Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.

Death closes all; but something ere the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done,

Not unbecoming men that strove with gods.

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;

The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep

Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,

'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Though much is taken, much abides; and though

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

 

Until next time –

Rob

 

"Ichigu wo terasu." = “Illuminate one corner.” -- Saicho (767-822 CE)

 

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RHC Hollydaze Quotemail #3

Hello everyone –

 

As the year 2020 draws to a close, I’d like to share two poems/songs with you that I’ve found to be especially meaningful this holiday season, both for myself personally and for the human family as well.

 

“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” (1863)

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

 

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,

and wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

 

And thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along

The unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

 

Till ringing, singing on its way,

The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime,

A chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

 

And in despair I bowed my head;

"There is no peace on earth," I said;

"For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

 

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men."

 

“THIS IS MY SONG” (1934)

Text by Lloyd Stone (1912-1993) & Georgia Harkness (1891-1974)

Tune: “FINLANDIA” (1899-1900) by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

 

1. This is my song, O God of all the nations,

A song of peace for lands afar and mine.

This is my home, the country where my heart is;

Here are my hopes, my dreams, my sacred shrine.

But other hearts in other lands are beating,

With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

 

2. My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,

And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine.

But other lands have sunlight too and clover,

And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.

O hear my song, O God of all the nations,

A song of peace for their land and for mine.

 

3. May truth and freedom come to every nation;

May peace abound where strife has raged so long;

That each may seek to love and build together,

A world united, righting every wrong;

A world united in its love for freedom,

Proclaiming peace together in one song.

 

Wishing all Quotemail subscribers a safe, happy, and healthy holiday season, with a fantastic 2021 to follow! 😊

 

Rob