I float in space, the sun lies at my right:
Life-giver, Helios, ferocious fire.
To left, space station, strong with steel and wire,
A haven? Weightless hell, with home in sight:
Above me falls the Earth, her oceans bright
And blue, her green and golden plains do tire,
They strain to push the snow-shod mountains higher,
Then hide below her changing clouds of white.

    "Good-bye, fair Mother Earth," I call, "Good-bye.”
Then turn about, to see a newer place:
The moon calls to me, chill, to be my home.
Your hold's adrift, old Earth, for there I'll die;
My bones shall lie untouched beneath your face,
But watch the universe men long to roam.

                                       1976