This black mare gallops through the galaxy without sound. 
Astronomers named her NGC 1333. You’ll find her 
in the Perseus Molecular Cloud. But that’s a designation 
not a name, not like the names the ancients gave, linked 
to myth and fable. Seen from a certain angle, she bulges 
with stars, bright bodies, outside and in. Her mane and tail 
are one wavering line of flame. She wears a saddle of stars. 
No bridle or reins restrain her; no one rides her. Is she 
the Fire Horse on the Chinese calendar? No borders 
in this place, no time. Darkness and light combine. So long 
as there is dust to shape, this horse will go on galloping.        

—Inspired by the following photograph:

Nebula NGC 1333, approximately 960 light-years from Earth

For a larger image as well as details about this star-forming cluster,
see: “Peeking into Perseus”

Photograph credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA,
A. Scholz, K. Muzic, A. Langeveld, R. Jayawardhana.

Image above was downloaded from ESA/Webb and appears here
under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.en/

Robbi Nester

is a retired college educator and the author of five books of poetry. She has also edited three anthologies of ekphrastic poetry and hosts two monthly Zoom series. Her poetry has appeared in many journals and anthologies, most recently MacQueen’s Quinterly; ONE ART: a journal of poetry; Storyteller Poetry Review; Verse-Virtual; and Whale Road Review.

Author’s website: https://www.robbinester.net

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ A New Way of Looking, a review by Rose Mary Boehm of Robbi Nester’s latest collection of ekphrastic poems, About to Disappear, in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 30X, December 2025)

⚡ After Life, ekphrastic poem by Robbi Nester in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 29, August 2025); nominated by MacQ for the Pushcart Prize

⚡ Three Poems in Verse-Virtual (November 2024)

⚡ Dancing White Egret, ekphrastic poem by Robbi Nester after a photograph by Philippe Rouyer, in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 14, August 2022)

⚡ Naughty Bits, poem in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 11, January 2022); nominated by MacQ for Best of the Net 2023.

⚡ After Blossom, ekphrastic poem after an etching by Phil Greenwood in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 3, May 2020); nominated by MacQ for Best of the Net 2020, and selected as a Poetry Finalist.

⚡ In Memory, five poems by Robbi Nester in Live Encounters (August 2021)