In a stirring courageous thrust into the unknown –
We speak not proudly,
But with lowliness in a mood of prayer,
we captured a new realm!
With a flash of brilliant light and consuming flame
We sent a man against the distant stars.
Riding in a giant silvery rocket of steel and technology
he ventured forth on a journey
that opened a new age!
Whirling eighty thousand miles around the earth
at a speed beyond our understanding
he cut time in two,
Slicing the long days into minutes
and the wide continents into islands!
As the oceans and mountain ranges,
the plains and deserts, fell behind him,
Radio’s slim fingers told an astounded world
the breathtaking story!
Everyone waited…
Ears sealed to his words…
Minds stretching in a long arc
around the wheeling earth.
Like a burning meteor he shot through space and time –
Viewing glorious sunsets in fast array.
There was no wind.
There were no clouds.
There was no air.
The place where he flew
was new to all mankind!
And then, with the press of a button
He hit what seemed a wall of granite…
His red hot space chariot began its return voyage
to the realm of earth!
And the quiet welcome waters of a warm sunny sea
caught him!
And closed a man’s maiden voyage
into God’s world of space.
(February 1962)