Sonnet I
by A. Walker Scott
© 2007
(This work first appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction March 2012.)
How cold is space, that dark and hollow night
Which holds in velvet hand the jewels of God.
At Man she laughs, not joyous, but in spite,
For man, too small, has strayed where none had trod,
And homes not meant for man's abode has claimed
On Mars' red earth, in frozen land of ice and storm;
In Lunar waste on cratered plain, sea-named;
And flying fast round worlds of gaseous form;
Or launching forth in deepest night to stars
Unnamed, unknown, unclaimed and farther flung.
But Man, his pride, his lust, it knows no bars,
And going on he comes to skies unsung.
The Night, she calls, and men, they come pell-mell,
But what the worlds they'll find: Delight or Hell?
Sonnet II
by A. Walker Scott
©2010
In chlorine sky dawns sun of golden hue,
Set moons of marbled face, and shine the stars
From off a different map. But domed, we view
The crystal homes of those expelled by wars
Who bend a world not theirs to serve their will.
A fragile hope. A desperate plan. A grasp
For freedom, faith, renewal, peace — to fill
Their cup and start again, to strive and clasp
The future, wrestle fate and win a dream
For children yet unborn. That music yet
May grace the morn and song entwine with gleam
Of star. For this they labor, and they set
Their hope. Can rise the dream to soar and give
A race a second chance to learn to live?
Sonnet III
by A. Walker Scott
© 2010
Through endless night the frozen travelers sleep
To venture farther than their lives can last,
The first from grasp of native world to leap
And reach for stars that once were guide to mast,
With ship that holds within its womb the seeds
Of life to start anew 'neath skies unseen
By all the generations past, to deeds
Unmatched to play the host as waste with green
Is spread. But tech moves fast while ship moves slow,
And in the vast a single ship is lost
In space and time, and as they inch t'ward glow
Of goal, new ships have raced and void have crossed
And welcome ancient parents to the world
Their children built while all their dreams were furled.