Welcome to the GAM 2012 Astropoetry Blog! We have set this blog up as a special place for astropoems relating to GAM 2012 programs. Most especially, we’re looking for poems from our readers focused on two areas: (1) Dark Skies, both their beauty and the need for them; and (2) the Moon. Write your “moonlight cocktails” of poetry now — and send them to [email protected] — so that during Lunar Week (April 1-7) we will have brand-new moon-related poems to show our readers on every day of that week. And you will have the satisfaction of being a published poet! Be sure your submission includes your name and where you are from (city and country). If you wish, you can also include a few words about the circumstances that led to writing the poem. And please note on you submission whether the poem is related to a GAM 2012 program.
It has been just one year since we started the AWB Astropoetry Blog (as a part of GAM 2010), and in those months we've been happily surprised to find that incredibly fine poems have come in, often from people who have never written a poem before. More often than not, the quality of your astropoem comes from simply being aware of the perceptions, thoughts and emotions you're having when out under the night sky — and then remembering to make notes quickly while these feelings and ideas are fresh in your mind.
DARK SKIES POETRY
Image credit: Wally Pacholka / AstroPics.com / TWAN
To introduce the Dark Skies section, the following two poems are provided as examples and “thought-starters.”
Upward-facing lights
fog our starry nights.
Replacing nature’s creations
with urban constellations.
Shed light on light pollution.
Be part of the solution.
By Connie Walker, Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A.
I began to understand that
the relativity
of the need for stars
outruns at any time
the certitude
of the speed of light.
By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe, Romania
MOONLIGHT POETRY
As this is being written (ON 5 April), the April 2011 Moon is already visible — a slim smile painted on the early evening sky. Mr. Yasuharu Hanaoka, of Osaka, Japan, kindly sent us the following picture and haiku poem — a fitting toast to go with our first “moonlight cocktail.”
SHE IS AN ASTRONOMER
Too much in love with
Tonight's moon to go to sleep...
The evening primrose.
By Yasuharu Hanaoka (with Bob Eklund)
With deepest thanks to Yasaharu Hanaoka for his inspiration and photograph of the evening primrose, whose name in Japanese, "Tsuki-mi-saw," means "flower looking at the moon."
Links:
GAM2011 Astropoetry Blog
Dark Skies Poetry section
Moonlight Poetry section
