Art
Foster’s The Heavens
This is the fifth poem in a series that 85-year-old Dongieux Foster of Satartia has allowed us to share with our readers.
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The date was January 15, 1958.
Russia had just launched Sputnik 1 into orbit, and the United States Army Ballistic Missile Agency had been directed to launch its own satellite.
Dongieux Foster was in the U. S. Army serving as a ballistic meteorologist, and greatly admired the man leading the program, Dr. Werner Von Braun. In fact, Foster admired Avon Braun so much that he put in his application to become an astronaut.
“Dr. Von Braun was the best scientist we had as far as I’m concerned. He taught me more in a short time than any other person I’ve ever met. He was also a devoted Christian which is unusual for a scientist,” Foster recalls.
The US ended up sending Explorer 1 into outer space on January 31, 1958, and Foster was inspired to write the following poem.
THE HEAVENS
I want to sail through the heavens
and see the worlds unknown
I want to skip from star to star
until the light of day comes on
I want to go beyond the stars
to all the hidden galaxies unseen
and fill all my pockets full
with all my wild empty dreams
I want to climb up the milky way
and slide down the other side
I want to catch a shooting star
and take a heavenly ride
I want to sit on a moonbeam
and see all the sights below
and watch a halo of stars
as they create a heavenly glow
and shake hands with creatures
never before seen by man
and walk a trail with them
in a far and distant land
I want to see the heavenly beings
to walk by and simply smile at me
to shake my hand and walk along
and tell me if this is heaven I see
Written by
Dongieux Foster
January 15, 1958
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