John Gallas Poetry

             





          






















'Together let us explore the stars' - J.F.Kennedy

MAY & JUNE 2008 =

POEMS OF INTREPID EXPLORATION


Go to the SEARCH box and type in 'poems 1/2/3/4/5' (then click SEARCH) for INTREPID EXPLORER poems :

1. THE MAN WHO WENT THE OTHER WAY DOWN THE GOLDEN ROAD TO SAMARKAND (TYPE IN 'poems 1')

2. SIR RICHARD BURTON'S MAP (TYPE IN 'poems 2')

3. PEDRO ALVAREZ CABRAL (TYPE IN 'poems 3')

4. GO GO GAGARIN UP HAPPY HERO (TYPE IN 'poems 4')

5. SAMARKAND (TYPE IN 'poems 5')


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CONTACT ME AT john.gallas@ntlworld.com

THE PICARDS GO INTO THE STRATOSPHERE IN A BALLOON

('Picard, Auguste Antoine (1884-1962) and Jean Felix (1884-1963), Swiss, explored the stratosphere by balloon' - Penguin Book of Facts).


Two stout war-trees prop the sky.
Some city, veined as a skinned patient,
draping there, breathes a river.


The Picards' silver balloon, a lung-bubble,
pops off a wharf. Wobble-growl. Up,
up. The world and its works unmash


into a picture, stopped with sweet wind.


Two duck-quilt coats with wadded muffs,
rubber goggles, wool-hoods, energy-chocolate,
rising ... and the Thermos hissing ... rising ...


softly through a plate of frosted glass,
wobble-growl and ozone-champagne fizz,
into no weather and a lemon calm.


The Picards unscrew their tortoiseshell pentops.


Now Man is a proud sort of creature.
He will measure, christen and explore
to be master of rabbits, baobab trees, oceans and stones.


He drags the world to his bosom
because it does not care, and names it Love.
In a land of silent air, the Picards make notes


to claim the stratosphere, and make us men.


                       *


(published in 'PN REVIEW' 2007)