Let Us Sail In Argo Navis. Poem by James Brennan

Dear Argo Navis
Let us sail
Across the Universe
In your ship of stars,
Let us resurrect you
To make you whole again!
Let us raise up Vela your sails!
Together with Carina's Keel
And Puppis's Stern to
Glide us through the
Celestial sea.

Guided by your compass Pyxis
As we man your ship
With your celestial crew,
Gamma Velorum, Zeta
Naos and Alpha
To name just but a few
Of your shimmering stars.
Some with planets
Some with many star systems
In your ship of wonder,
Let us set sail
Dear Argo Navis.


Canopus the pilot
Is your brightest star
The pilot
Of a Spartan King
No less! who's
Monument stands tall
At the mouth of the Nile
Inspiring the name
Of the village resting
At the foot of your legacy.

Volans the flying fish
Carrying Beta Volantis
Will join us on our journey
Across the galaxy beyond our
Milky Way to the far reaches
Of our vast expanding Universe.

Maybe we will never reach its edge.

Do Take us with you
Dear Argo Navis
It is only with you
We would feel so safe,
Sailing through dust clouds
Interstellar gas clouds,
Meteor showers and comets
Around our galaxy
Full of constellations.

Let's visit Sagittarius and
The lagoon nebular,
Skip across to Taurus
To see the crab nebula,
I hear it has a pulsar
At its centre so small
Yet more dense than the Sun
In the solar system
I call home.
Let's visit Pleiades the seven sisters
Then on to Andromeda
With her trillions of stars!
Before heading off to
The billions of galaxies
Way out beyond
To the edge of our Universe.

Let's skip a black hole we don't need
An event horizon
Our journey will be eventful enough
Sailing into the unknown
With a mighty constellation
Such as you,
You the one To safely see
Jason and the Argonauts
Safely on their quest
For the golden fleece,
This, in turn, saw you
Take your place within the heavens
Our dear friend, the Argo Navis.

Photo James. G. Brennan. Starwalk App.