Poem: "Searching by Starlight"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This is the freebie for the May 2015 Creative Jam. It was inspired by prompts from alexseanchai. It also fills the "watch television" square in my 5-2-15 card for the Wellness Toolbox Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the nineforthenebulasheart project.


"Searching by Starlight"


Ndidi Franklin has her own ways
of seeking the Nebula's Heart.

She leafs through archaic pages
and scrolls through text files,
making meticulous notes.

When she gets tired of the dry,
academic references then
she turns to pop culture to relax.

Starlight shines through
the thick windows of the lounge,
but these are not the stars
that she is looking for.

The Nebula's Heart is the star
she seeks to steer by, a spark
in the darkness, its significance
hidden by symbols and innuendo.

Ndidi knows it when she sees it,
though, and slowly pieces together
a pattern from the laughing comedies
and the solemn dramas.

Not just a pattern: a map.

* * *

Notes:

Read about The Star in Tarot.

Ndidi Franklin is introduced on the canon page.

Comments

[alexseanchai]

Beautiful!

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

You can repost it on the Nebula site if you wish.

Re: Thank you!

[alexseanchai]

Shall do.

(map made of hints in pop culture ♥!)

Re: Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Well, I figured that the Nebula's Heart would be like the Holy Grail or Sasquatch -- people would talk about it, make documentaries and television shows about it, etc. Those would be more common in places where it had actually appeared, and less common farther away. So you could make a pin map. Not very accurate, but when you're dealing with a whole galaxy, "look near these stars" is a huge help in narrowing down the search.

[thnidu]

My, my. Gotta look up these canon refs.


• signifigance
→ significance

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> My, my. Gotta look up these canon refs. <<

Visit nineforthenebulasheart for more. The core canon appears in a sticky post. This shared world came out of a Creative Jam, and several people have contributed to it.

>> • signifigance
→ significance <<

Fixed, thanks.

Re: Thank you!

[thnidu]

>> • signifigance
→ significance <<

Fixed, thanks.

The funny thing about this one is that it often comes out of the mouth this way, though I doubt that has anything to do with the typo.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Oh, BTW (says Dr. Whom), in a bit of serendipitous coincidence, yesterday I met someone with the last name Ndicu [ˈⁿdiʃu]. They are Kikuyu. And so I now have a much clearer idea of how, at least possibly, to pronounce "Ndidi": with a much shorter prenasalization than I had been using for such names and words.