Last week in The Guardian, I read about an awesome contest that NASA is having in preparation for the launch of a new Martian atmospheric spacecraft called MAVEN. The Space Agency is accepting haiku submissions to travel with MAVEN on a DVD when it launches into space in November for a 10-month journey to the red planet. Even if your poem isn’t selected as the winning entry, your name–just by submitting–will be included. This got me buzzing about NASA’s newest baby; below are a few of my haiku. If you like any of them, feel free to vote for it to be blasted into outer space. Submit yours today!
—
Martian summertime
Dusty rust clouds swirl and freeze
Burn the Viking’s eyes
Ten month’s long voyage
Expertly, she dips a wing
Stasis circling on
Atmosphere pleasures
Dense enough to buoy her
Thin enough to choke out life
Somewhere in the gas
A resplendent Eden hides
Shining microbes frigid, stiff
A queen inherits
A kingdom’s bold legacy
Cleopatra flies
—
A journey afar
From wet blue to bone dry red
What will she learn there
One more lone pilgrim
With nerdy men to guide her
Dusty red rock hadj
Brisk escape from earth
A seeker’s path through the dark
Fall soft and wander
She has come to see
Vast wonders of this red scape
Now and what once was
We cannot come yet
This maven do we send now
Eyes full of wonder
