First:   Happy St. Brigid's Day.   If you forgot to put our the Brigid Cloth (the Brat Bhride) last night, let me know and I will send you a piece so you have the healing cloth in your home until next year:)

Second:   I noticed that today is the anniversary of the Columbia Space Shuttle when 7 of our astronauts were killed in the explosion on reentry.

1986 was the first of the two great disasters, the Challenger.   This is actually what got me back writing poetry.   I will  share that poem which is in my Fragments poetry chap book.

THEY SOAR


They soar.

We send them- Emissaries to the edges of the grasp of the planet.

They stride.
These heroes of our time
With joy and pride and courage.

With reckless abandon, they enter the capsule
And we fling them into the void.

We name them Astronaut-Cosmonaut
These names make our hearts and minds ache with pride
Because they are human - like us.

We thrill as they rise from the shackles of Earth,
Feeling as they rise, the thrill in the pit of our stomachs,
As they experience
The ultimate carnival ride-
A journey beyond the clouds-
A reach for God in his heaven.

They satisfy
Man's eternal curiosity,
His need to see a little further down the road.

We see them leave the womb of the capsule and float in the nothingness
On a man-made umbilical cord.
So Brave-So foolhardy.

We watch them walk on other worlds- with Giant Steps.

They talk of God, and of Pride and of Beauty that leave them breathless.

In view of the whole world and yet beyond our reach,
They perform their deeds in glory.

And sometimes our emissaries don't come back.

And we cry for the.

Dia Dhuit

Mary