Charles Kuniak was a high school science teacher who lived with his family in a quiet neighborhood in Nome, Alaska.

In his free time, he studied the secrets of the universe.

Charles had a powerful telescope, and he often visited observatories, so he learned more and more about the universe.

What an amazing universe!

Yet how could Charles help his daughter Bella understand that our sun was just one of billions of stars?

How could she realize that the small meteorite on display in his classroom traveled to Earth from beyond Mars?

How could he explain that we live in a universe so vast it would take a spacecraft 100,000 years to cross our Milky Way galaxy while traveling at the speed of light?

Charles decided that the best way to show Bella was not through numbers and charts, but through a poem.

He sat down and wrote what he knew about the universe.

He called it Bella's Home.

Bella's Home

Bella lived in a white wooden house, on a street in the city of Nome.

Bella sat in her bedroom and thought to herself,

Where in the world is my home?

What I need, she thought, is a spacecraft to give me a better view.

So in her mind, she climbed inside, and up in the sky she flew.

Her white wooden house was tiny indeed, and Nome was as small as a pie.

As Bella flew up, she saw that Alaska looked like a bear from the sky.

Higher she flew, and Alaska, too, became part of something so grand.

She saw islands, countries, and continents, with blue oceans around the land.

Bella now saw her beautiful planet, a blue ball floating in space, and a shining moon that circled the Earth, with the light of the sun on its face.

She noticed the Earth was not alone.

With seven more planets it dwelled.

In a great solar system, they circled the sun, with asteroids and comets as well.

Bella's spacecraft flew higher and higher.

Now the sun was a speck of bright light.

In the Milky Way galaxy shaped like a disk, Bella thought, what a wondrous sight.

Then billions of galaxies appeared everywhere, each one filled with billions of stars.

What Bella observed was the vast universe.

Her spacecraft had taken her far.

Suddenly, Bella was back in her room, in her white wooden house in Nome.

I will visit those places again, Bella thought, for wherever I go is my home.