#NaNoWriMo Poem 1 - To comfortably go?

I know this is National November Writing Month and that the aim of this month is usually to write a novel in the period of time. But this year I shall be writing a topical poem a day.

So here is my first offering:




To confortably go?

You used to need to have the right stuff to venture into space.
But soon they say that stuff in cash, for millionaires to engage.
The reason for this men who had the right stuff in their bones
Was the danger that sitting on the launchpad did not mean they'd come home.

Now after two space related crashes and one pilot's name added
To the list of space fatalities the question cannot be evaded.
That space is still a step into the dangerous, a leap to the unknown.
And tourists who are queueing up, some may not come home.

But that is what the tests are for to make the procedure safer
To comfortably go where others once went much braver.
Tourists into space, the ultimate Branson adventure
But even his crossings by boat and balloon faced failure.

Each new development in travel has always faced disaster
Whether jumping on a horse, greeting a train or motor car.
And space and air of course have always been most fatal
Because an error up above leads to impacts colossal.

Those magnificent men in their flying machines
Have always pushed the envelopes unseen.
They've always needed untold bravely to go
Boldly where no one before would go.

So right stuff, right cash, right solution to defying gravity
Is this just a road block on the way to fire celebrity
Or entrepreneur or heir up beyond the stratosphere.
We shall have to wait and see where Virgin go from here.

But today our thoughts and prayers are with two families.
Families of two who with the right stuff pushed the boundaries.
One now dead the other fighting on  gripping to life
They're in our thoughts and prayers facing this latest strife.

© 2014 Stephen Glenn