Columbia and Challenger disasters

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Open Poetry #46

Columbia and Challenger disasters

Abe
Senior Member

since 2003-05-28

Posts 694
Looks like Vero Beach, FL until the end!

0 posted 2010-02-01 10:42 AM

Columbia annivesary is today.Challenger was Jan. 28th

Twenty Four And Counting
(Columbia)

There’s seven more Heroes
Added to that legacy
Of space flight and travel
From the Cape of Kennedy.

An almost perfect Mission
Of the scientific kind
With a myriad of experiments
Meant, to better humankind.

Two Ladies and five Men
Plus thousands on the ground
Excited about their return
As they were homeward bound.

Only minutes left, to complete
Another page of history
Only to leave us, with questions
Of yet, another tragedy.

Sadly, we all forget
About the dangers of each Flight
We take it all for granted
When, everything goes right.

But, we’ll keep on going on
For it’s in, the Nature of Man
To not let the setbacks
Change, the goal of the Plan.

Through lives ended, prematurely
By what, some Greater Power willed
They left their mark upon this Earth
With some dreams, they have fulfilled.

Now, they’re with that growing Crew
Who fly around in Heaven
Another group, who we should call
"The Magnificent Seven".

02-02-2003

CHALLENGER PLUS TWENTY

Twenty years we have been mourning
Since we lost that Shuttle crew
As we watched in awe and horror
With nothing we could say or do.

One of those important times in life
When you know just where you were
And though time may ease the pain
Those images will remain, for sure.

Although it might have been prevented
We all know, that’s not how it goes
Decisions made by other people
Or by where the money flows.

Why do we always seem to wait
Until someone usually has to die
When we hear they could have fixed it
But find, they didn’t even try?

We all hoped those Astronauts
Met their ending painlessly
But now we know they were aware
Of their plummet to the sea.

They all knew they were at risk
With great danger all around
But they didn’t know on that day
They were truly, Heaven-bound.

01-28-2006

DON'T CHALLENG'ER

(Written after watching Her pass
over Orlando for first landing at Cape
February 11th, 1984
Also saw Her launch, live.)

Well, the giant silver bird
Has passed another test -
And this time She came back home
She returned to Her nest.

Four hundred miles per hour -
More than three miles high -
She sure was a pretty sight
As She streaked across the sky.

In the early morning light
She made a "booming" sound -
Her head held high, bold and proud
As She dropped to the ground.

She'd been in another world
For one week and a day -
High above the Earth and clouds
Where people look to pray.

Taken so much for granted
In this here day and age -
But in the books of history
She wrote another page.

Orlando, FL
02-15-1984

IN QUEST

Challenging the earth’s heavens
These seven pioneers
Embarked to gain new knowledge
To conquer new frontiers
A new world lay before them
The light of a new dawn
A place of unknown dangers
Where man has always gone
To see beyond horizons
To peer over the next hill
Always a goal of mankind
One, he must try to fulfill
Some have come through unscathed
And some were bound to die
But none of them have failed
For they had the will to try
These gained immortality
Though, on a tragic page
In the book of history
Of this newborn space age
They offered and gave their all
They paid the price supreme
As mankind has always done
In his quest of a dream.

01-30-1986

UNTITLED

Challenger, I watched you
As you first invaded space
And you flew over me one morn
To return to your home base.

You went back out again
Different people in control
Though you were just a machine
You'd helped man reach his goal.

We will probably never know
Why you said you were done -
But why did you have to take
The lives of those brave seven?

You made yourself immortal
With those you held inside
To those who knew your "soul"
To those below who cried.

You did yourself so proud
With your triumph over space
But with your last attempt
You caused so many a sad face.

"Don't Challenge 'Er.", I said
The first time around -
But for these final words
There's no title to be found.

01-26-1986

Del "Abe" Jones
Mankind's greatest accomplishment is not the revolution of technology, it is the evolution of creativity. copyright 1984

Margherita
Member Seraphic

since 2003-02-08

Posts 22236
Eternity

1 posted 2010-02-01 12:32 PM

Wonderful poems, dear Abe! Such emotion connected with these events.
Pioneers are always at risk, but thanks God for their courage.
Our destiny is in the space ... scientific progress can't stop!

Love,
Margherita

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