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 tid