Poems Related to Subject Matter

Any subject can inspire poetry. The following poem was written for an assignment in a science class studying constellations. The poem was mounted on black paper to give the effect of the night sky.

Life Of A Star

Dark space, dark
gas and dust combine
cloud, expands
fusion occurs, hydrogen heats
gravity pulls...main sequence...star
new brightness, shining fusion
hydrogen to helium
billion years later
star expands, redness
giant star, glowing
bright, brighter, brighter
supernova, explodes...
core collapse, smaller, smaller
neutron star, gravity swells
spinning, spinning pulsar star
finally...condensing, darker,
darker, smaller, smaller
force of gravity
no light escapes
dense darkness
ending...

Evan Downey
Grade 8
St. Catherine of Bologna School
Ringwood, NJ

This poem could have been made into a web page, linking to sites on stars, and defining terms
like fusion, gravity, pulsar etc.