The James Webb Telescope

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“James Webb Space Telescope’s 1st Image shows deepest, sharpest view of universe ever” July 11, 2022 CBC News online. 


They told us that we had to peer into the distant past to see the future:

ancient galaxies being birthed 13.8 billion years ago 

emitting the oldest light in the universe

like echoes ricocheting off the walls of a canyon— 

long after the cry has stopped the galaxy 

moved on to another thought 

another scramble up the rock face

A patch of sky the size of a grain of sand

reflected on a smooth gold-plated

disk 6.5 mm in diameter—

your iris expands, beholds

past, present, future in tiny golden flecks

Infrared light reveals multiverse realities but do we 

really want them to reach out and touch our world—

let them glimpse our sad, unknowable selves?

We salute the Black Hole millions of light-years away

a phantom limb, flickering, pulsing, demanding our attention—

the scientists say: “Everything is going to change completely


Featured Image credit:
One of the First Images from the James Webb Space Telescope. Stephan’s Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies. NASA
: https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages.

  • Joy Dubé

    As an early childhood educator, Joy Dubé uses poetry and writing as a way to help children discover deep truths about themselves in a second, acquired language (French). She herself writes poetry to understand the world and the human relationships with Nature, and with one another.

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