Radio Poetry

that has become the very jars

that houses the soul of man today

with all our watchful eyes we pray

to learn our place among the stars.

John C. Mannone
November 15, 2002 (note 1)

*********************************************************************** The Plight of Radio Flight

Undulating heaps of raging solar dunes
Flare-up in discontent aloud and none too soon
Convulsed magnetic strands dance coronal tunes
While spastic plasmic electrons dance, spin and croon

Luminal shrieks are broadcast
To the lonely blackened void
Chased by a swarm of dissenters cast
Out from the angry spheroid

Shocked by a protruding magnetopause
Snared by magnetic straps
Flocked by the rising tropopause
Flared by collisional traps

These, the terrestrial ether succumbs
And fade in a dream of shimmering bifrost
The tricolor auroral curtain becomes
A legacy of the solar shards once lost.

John C. Mannone
July 26, 2003 (note 2)

*********************************************************************** Cries From the Stellar Nursery

In the court of the Trapezium,
Are stars whose motive is betrayed by their lines
They conspire to vent their angry blue light
Upon the innocent nearby clouds
Ubiquitous hydrogen, now
With electrons torn free from its kindred ions,

Ensue a charged Coulomb dance,
In attempt to re-engage, but end in futile bouts
Excepting a high Rydberg,
Their state is lonely without their partner baryons
How they noise about at random,
Their complaint being heard through the dusty dark shrouds.

John C. Mannone
September 1, 2001 (see note 3)

***********************************************************************
Relativistic Screams

The mighty solar wind, with fury drives a sea of coulombic cosmics
Which, by Jove, are lured captive by his magnanimous magnetics
They dance and gyrate and progress in tightening orbital elliptics
And scream their song, well-directed, synchrontronic and symphonic.

John C. Mannone
September 1, 2001 (see note 4)

*********************************************************************** Poetry of the Stars

The stars sing a symphony of a mystery, alas!
While Astronomers magic'ly unlock
With eyes upon a looking glass
Physicists marvel the star's spectral frock
With equations of light, size, mass
But Poets see the stellar bright awestruck
With words, your lonely heart he'll bless
The stars ring a harmony of a beauty unsurpassed.

John C. Mannone
October 1, 2002 (see note 5)

**********************************************************************
MY SOL

O faithful Morning Star, giver of life, dispeller of darkness
You traverse the heavens in a path that is true
And the morning is not forsaken
But You give your gracious light afresh every morning.
Your countenance is of a King's
Golden rays of regal splendor adorn your captive orbs
Your crown of glory, its awesome expanse disclosed
As the Moon bows before you.

Your subjects rejoice as sparkling gems
In the majesty of your tapestry of royal night
When you tabernacle among them.
Your warmth kindles a fiery passion in my soul
I now await for your return

O precious Son of Man.

John C. Mannone
June 19, 2001 (see note 6)

1. A poem about the birth, life, and death of stars and diagnostic benefit of probing with the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Presented at the SARA 2002 Regional Meeting in Harriman, TN November 16, 2002 in a talk entitled "Multiwavelength Imaging and Radio Astronomy." (Revised June 8, 2004 in the form of heroic couplets; last stanza in iambic tetameter. Shared in the June 10 talk, "Shedding Light," for the Catawba Valley Astronomy Club.)

2. A poem about a solar burst- particle and radio emission. Presented at the SARA 2003 Conference in Green Bank, WV July 27-30, 2003 in a talk entitled "Solar Physics With 20 MHz Antennas: Time and Frequency Domain Analysis."

3. A poem about the Orion Nebula, a thermal radio source. Presented at the SARA 2002 Conference in Green Bank, WV July 8-10, 2002 in a talk entitled "Radio Astronomy: A Vision for Community Colleges."

4. A poem about a non-thermal source, Jovian synchrotron radio emission. Originally presented at the ORION astronomy club meeting September 5, 2001 Oak Ridge, TN in a talk entitled "Elements of Radio Astronomy." It was also featured at the SARA 2002 Conference in Green Bank, WV July 8-10, 2002 in a talk entitled "Radio Astronomy: A Vision for Community Colleges."

5. A renaissance poem created for a presentation given at numerous clubs entitled "The Poetry of the Universe: Examples of Astronomy in Historical Literature" and the more focused "Poetry of the Stars: A Literary Interlude." (Minor revision September 16, 2003).

6. Of all the poetry I have written, this is one of my favorite. Only apparently is it about a solar eclipse; it is far more spiritual, with many allusions to Scriptures. It was presented in a community talk immediately following the June 21, 2001 solar eclipse around the summer solstice, viewed via satellite at the American Museum of Science and Energy, Oak Ridge, TN. The talk was entitled "Introduction to Solar Astronomy: The African Total Solar Eclipse." (Minor revision to Italian Sonnet form, w/o end rhyme, May 19, 2004).

7. This piece of radio poetry is written not in association with a lecture, but as a puzzle. The object is to determine which Messier object is being discussed. This puzzle also appears in the November 2003 issue of the BAS STAR Newsletter. A complete analysis of this poem is found under the "Educational" section of this web site.

8. Presented at the SARA 2004 Conference (June 27-30 NRAO Green Bank, WV) lecture, entitled "Detection and Analysis of Plasma Bubbles with 20 MHz Radio Frequency," this poem continues the tradition. The original draft was composed April 30, but was revised into heroic couplets June 18.