La Vie... en Prose

On this day, 50 years ago, Apollo 11 landed on the moon, a momentous occasion in history. Archibald Mac Leish was the poet tasked with writing a poem for the front page of the Sunday New York Times the following morning after the historic night. No easy task!  Here it is: Voyage to the Moon - Archibald MacLeish Presence among us, wanderer in the skies, dazzle of silver in our leaves and on our waters silver, O silver evasion in our farthest thought– “the visiting moon” . . . “the glimpses of the moon” . . . and we have touched you! From the first of time, before the first of time, before the first men tasted time, we thought of you. You were a wonder to us, unattainable, a longing past the reach of longing, a light beyond our light, our lives–perhaps a meaning to us… Now our hands have touched you in your depth of night. Three days and three nights we journeyed, steered by farthest stars, climbed outward, crossed the invisible...