HELIOS
Rich Wales (c. 1969)

 
The glowing disc that lights the earth comes up at dawn 
To start a lengthy journey toward the far-off night.
It rises in the heavens till it signals noon 
When overhead, and then descends to sink at dusk.
But though it seems forever lost beneath the west,
It shall return to promulgate another morn.

Ascending through the east to mark the time of morn,
In slow but steady flight from that primeval dawn,
The disc moves steadfast in its travel to the west 
And to its well-earned rest beneath the dark of night;
But weary in the pilgrimage to distant dusk,
It pauses for so brief a time at halfway noon.

The disc attains the summit of its trip at noon,
Succeeding in ascent from the beginning morn,
And then prepares the downward fall toward drowsy dusk,
Just as it climbed to midday from the waking dawn.
Continuing the path to much-desired night,
It starts once more to travel toward the waiting west.

While in the downward portion of its journey west,
Continuing the travel that was stopped at noon,
The tired disc awaits the coming of the night 
And of a rest to follow travel from the morn.
So as it rose into the sky at long-past dawn,
It now prepares to sink beneath the earth at dusk.

The disc extinguishes its shining light at dusk,
When it attains the ending of its journey west.
It now looks on the place it occupied at dawn 
And sees the resting-place where it had stopped at noon;
And as it ends the journey starting in the morn,
It shrouds the earth amidst the darkness of the night.

The dormant disc now sleeps upon the bed of night,
Inside the room it entered through the door of dusk.
It dreams of its next journey, when from eastern morn 
It once again will travel toward the far-off west,
With only one short interim at upward noon;
And then it wakes, arising for another dawn.

Out of the night will come another journey west;
And though a lowest dusk will follow highest noon,
Another morn will come, and with it one more dawn.