Return to Tranquility

Three and forty years ago as part of a bold plan,
two Apollo astronauts took giant steps for man.
Tranquility now welcomes us to celebrate the feat,
(maybe back on Earth someday the seas of calm will meet.)

Eleven was the number of the first spaceship to land;
we all hailed Apollo and our unity was grand.
The tranquil sea retains the steps imprinted long ago,
and on the moon we stand beneath the Earth’s life-giving glow.

Here we are upon the plain, a feature seen from Earth;
how our moon became our moon is speculative worth.
But it's our nightlight beaming bright--our moon does have a face;
we are, indeed, so fortunate to bide this tranquil place.

Over there we see it now, the bottom of the LEM;*
that spidery moon-lander was a fine space-fairing gem.
And little could a single person know it would provide,
a lifeboat° for some astronauts, their main ship having died.

As we sojourn Tranquility, we have the right to brag;
in the lunar soil still abides the U.S. flag.
We linger to salute it underneath a sea of black;
the sea we stand in on this moon is glad to take us back.

Some mirrors placed upon the moon--controlled experiment,
showed that it was more than just a woo-the-world event.
Then as a laser shone from Earth, reflecting on the mirror,
with measurements culled carefully, dynamics now are clear.

We now scan the boulder field² that Armstrong had to beat;
he and Aldrin had to stay composed despite the heat.
So he turned the computer off and by his seat he flew,
and mission control personnel were ready to turn blue.

We depart Tranquility--inside we feel at ease;
near and far, so many doors--adventures are the keys.
For we stand on the shoulders of the ones that went before;
and receding below us is the tranquil lunar floor.

Lines: 32

*LEM: Lunar excursion module; the ship that actually landed on the moon.

° The LEM was used as a lifeboat on Apollo 13, when the command module
  experienced an explosion. 

² As Apollo 11 (Eagle) was descending to the moon’s surface, the computer
  controls was leading them right into a field of boulders.  So Neil Armstrong
  disengaged the computer control, and landed the ship manually. He had to
  fly laterally across the boulder field, and finally found a clear spot to land.
  He had only 30 seconds of fuel left.