Friday, October 8, 2010

Haiku My Heart - The Pleiades

Click image to enlarge

seductive night dance
beckons us home
~stardust


There are few things more captivating and mysterious to me than the night sky. This beautiful painting, entitled 'The Pleiades', was completed by American artist Elihu Vedder in 1885. The star cluster Pleiades, also known as The Seven Sisters, is estimated to be about 115 million years old. Wow. That really puts some kind of perspective on our human existence, doesn't it? Soon this cluster will be a prominent feature of the night sky here in the northern hemisphere. The myth and mystery surrounding these lovely 'sisters' is plentiful and alluring.

One of my favorite sites is APOD - Astronomy Picture of the Day. Compare this image with Vedder's painting - how perfectly he captured those cosmic sisters.

Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro’ the mellow shade,
Glitter like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid.
~ Lord Tennyson

Haiku your cosmic heart at Recuerdo Mi Corazon.


Peaceful stargazing...

we are stardust
we are golden

we are billion year old carbon
and we've got to get ourselves
back to the garde
n...


13 comments:

  1. Cool! I love to sit and watch the stars. They are eternity, as you mention. The stars are as old as the rocks, our ancestors, that have seen all that mankind has done and can teach us this knowledge. Lovely. I don't know all thew constelations, but this one iknow, seven sisters.

    Peace.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Seductive indeed, I want to dance, but not for awhile, I'm enjoying the earthly beat for the moment!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lovely post. Thanks for sharing.

    All the best, Boonie

    ReplyDelete
  4. I want sisters to head back to the garden with. Think I will do that soon! Nice post, fodder for thought. And I think the constellations are a nice way to "connect the dots".

    ReplyDelete
  5. what a beautiful post and haiku...thank you for the link to the apod...going to check it out now...and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden...i'm with you all the way on that one..now i have that song in my head...hope you're having a nice weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Joe: Stargazing is one of my favorite pastimes. I'm always overwhelmed by the sheer vastness of it all.

    Foxysue: There's nothing to say we can't dance with the cosmos from here! ;)

    Boonie: Thank you for visiting.

    Jill: Thank you. I don't have any biological sisters but I've been blessed with many soul sisters along my way... good traveling companions, imho. ;)

    Jean: Thank you. Really, the time has to be now...

    Thanks to each of you for stopping by and reading along.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I like your haiku very much. Thank you for explaining some of the meaning behind it and the painting!

    ReplyDelete
  8. this is great...
    full of mystery and fascination.
    i have loved this unigue collection of stars for so long. now i will think of you and your love of the heavens when i see them.
    thank you for the perfect painting to go with it all.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Beautiful haiku, love your night sky.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Your haiku is hauntingly beautiful, just like the night sky.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thank you, Stephanie, EG, Rebecca, Uma and Bill. I've been fascinated by the moon and stars for as long as I can remember. Somehow, I feel at home under a night sky.

    ~Deb

    ReplyDelete
  12. Joe, it just now occurred to me that one of my favorite 'beach' stones that occupies a space on my desk is a Petoskey - 350 million years old. Kinda blows the mind, doesn't it??

    ReplyDelete