PHILIP REED OYERLY

Poem  9/2/2001 ("mid-wife nun")

This poem Delivering Destiny was pened by Philip Reed Oyerly, Berkley Springs, WV, USA. to the crew of Space Shuttlle Atlantis, Flight STS-98, which delivered the Destiny Module to the first International Space Station ("Alpha"). 
The "mid-wife nun" was inspired by Good Shepard Sister Joan Agnes Mc Fadden. This poem is included in the fourth book of "Poem's for My Family" by Philip Reed Oyerly.

Delivering Destiny
(An Ode to the Crew of STS-98)

 Twixt the full moon and the setting sun,
 Alantis bound by gravity,
 and gantry-garbed ...like mid-wife nun,
 was poised for the Delivery Run....
 and its womb was Destiny.

 Then, writhing, rising, rolling East,
striving for the fastest path .....
and ere its greatest labor ceased,
it spawned a wind-tossed cloudy feast,
that caught the sun's prismatic path.

Abruptly, seeming silence came
as Atlantis, locked in quiet chase,
refined its exquisite aim.....
in the risky, yet majestic, game
of rendezvous in infant Space.

There, Atlantis gave up Destiny
to Alpha's eminent embrace .......
an act of Enlightened  Laity,
a move toward God's Infinity ....
and the Earthly Weaning of our Race.