2016 NaPoWriMo Poem #11: I Know and I Need

i know the sun
loves me no less
when it shines on the other
side of the world
and i know the stars
love me no less
when they spend months
close to the sun,
hidden from me
in its glow
i know this
yet i find
i need
to be reminded
periodically.



----

Maybe a bit off theme, but it came to me more or less as is as I was waking up. 

2016 NaPoWriMo Post #10: Amnesty Bay Meteoritical Society Press Conference

“You’re all missing the
importance of this study”
the scientist said, furrowing her brow.
“We have shown
via a combination of
isotopic study,
mineralogy, and
textural analysis that
the Smallville parent body
was Earth-sized,
orbited an M-type star,
and disrupted via an internal process
not a giant impact.

The speculation as to
whether this planet
was inhabited,
let alone how
exposure to its debris
might affect life forms is
one sentence
in a much larger, compelling body of work.

We look forward
to finding more pieces
similar to Smallville,
and thank an anonymous
benefactor
who is financing a
citizen science project
to scour the Earth for more.”

A reporter shifted
uneasily
in his seat.

2016 NaPoWriMo Poem #9: Unfilled Manifest

We generate
more ideas
than we can use.
History is littered
with best-laid plans
passed by.

Apollo 19 and CRAF
Champollion and JIMO
Pioneer H and Mariner Mark II
and others without
Wikipedia pages to
tell their story.

Maybe the funding
was used for something useful,
though I haven’t the
heart to ask nor
the clearance to
find out.

2016 NaPoWriMo Poem #8: We Never See The Same Sky Twice

We never see the same sky twice.
No fixed mark, this maddening gyre.
And though it seems to swirl entire,
note: wanderers will blunder through
on retrograde and showy loops
before rejoining a forward track.
The Earth itself has shifted tack
since pyramid or henge aligned.
While looking up now we may find
a little bear has its tail pinned
but it will anon escape.
Even stars jostle on the charts
and inch along on ancient courses
a priceless herd of luminous horses
in an infinite pasture.

We never see the same sky twice
even with members of the same crowd.
And that’s not to mention clouds.



---

Picture from http://www.mreclipse.com/Meteors/Leo01/Leo01gallery.html

2016 NaPoWriMo Poem #7: Waiting Impatiently

Cinnamon surface, rarer than saffron
though its taste of old pool water
bars a good mix with blueberries.

In my parents’ time some still
wished you likened
with green flashes and seasonal drought
before an ancient Mariner
found nary a drop to drink.

Project humans to Mars
many might say, waiting impatiently
for a negative to be proven
before we journey
and spread our crap around.

NaPoWriMo Poem #6: Poem Six

maybe
eventually i’ll write about
the elephant in the room
or that’s not in the room
you’ll know if I have
probably
maybe
you’ll know it
by studying the topics
of poems
others have written
(and may write in the future)
and comparing to poems
i haven’t written
and notice a pattern
maybe
others will write poems
about what I’m not
writing a poem about
and you’ll infer
my poem exists
maybe
i wrote the poem
maybe
i’m waiting for a book deal
to let you see it
or not

2016 NaPoWriMo Poem #5: What Not To Expect

we expected swales and ridges,
signatures of an atlas
too relaxed to hold up the world,
content to let things slide.

we expected a world
of pencil lead and chalk,
laxative and kitty litter,
permafrost foam on frozen brine.

after a year
we don’t know
what we have
and we still don’t know
what to expect.