Steve Sneyd (1941 - 2018): In Memoriam

Photograph © 2001, Gerald England.

people who have vanished
pressed into poems in small defunct magazines
still breath sometimes athwart my dreams

so wrote Steve Sneyd in Tributary Fractions which I published in The Hallamshire & Osgoldcross Poetry Express back in 1973.

Photograph © 2018, Gerald England.

Last week I said goodbye to him as he was buried at the Rose Hill Burial Ground,
a non-denominational site for natural burials at Birkby above Huddersfield. His family, local friends and various people from the small press world including Andy Darlington, John Francis Haines, J C Hartley, Pete Presford and Chris Reed, gathered under the shade of a large tree in the grounds. We heard about his life, his work and his achievements, listened to some of his poetry and paid our respects.

Photograph © 2018, Gerald England.

I first knew Steve when he was publishing Ludd's Mill and I had started Headland. We both contributed to a large number of the so-called "little magazines" that proliferated in the small press world of the 1970s and into the millennium.. In the pre-internet era they became a network through which poets communicated with each other. We met up at conventions around the country in Liverpool, Dartford, Norwich, Corby, Middlesbrough, Hastings, Newcastle and elsewhere. The photograph at the top of the page was taken at the Purple Patch convention hosted by Geoff Stevens in Sandwell. There Steve gave a talk on The Inclusion Of Poetry In Novels.

I've published numerous poems by Steve Sneyd over the years and in 1992 his collection A Mile Beyond The Bus. which was illustrated by Ian M Emberson (1936 - 2013).

Photograph © 2018, Gerald England.

Despite have a huge interest in science fiction he was something of a luddite when it came to the internet. However he was a regular contributor to Comopoetry coordinated by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe from Romania. His contribution to their Through the Light anthology was:

IN DESPITE OF PROSPERO

Fall of Ariel
this high brightness coming fast
to free Caliban

***

PHILAE CALLING

from the comet’s shadow
pod voice back so long
"I’m still really yours"

-by Steve Sneyd (UK, laureate of the Peterson Trophy, director of Hilltop Press, editor of Data Dump)

Learn more about Steve and his work in the International Times.

He will not be forgotten.

The Hindu Temple

The latest issue of the online anthology Cosmopetry is entitled "BET ON PLANETS or THE SMALL OLYMPICOSMPOETRIADA OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM" by SARM Cosmpoetry Master Club and Friends .

It starts with photographs of the moon and Jupiter by Valentin Grigore over Targoviste in Romania. It is followed by numerous photographic contributions from around the world of heavenly bodies including, nebulae, eclipses, Saturns rings, the transit of Mercury, the Perseids, the Aurora Borealis as well as poems on astronomical themes.

My own contribution is an astro-photo-tanka from March 2001 in Singapore.

the Hindu temple
through the open doorway
people at prayer
over them in a dark sky
sickle moon and Jupiter

© Gerald England



Other photos show the similarities between Teide Volcano, Tenerife and Mount Fuji, Japan. Catalin Beldea displays a lovely sequence showing the total solar eclipse of March 8th 2016 over Indonesia. Adrian Bruno Sonka writes about Asteroids with Satellites. The whole collection was coordinated by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe and designed by Florin Alexandru Stancu on behalf of the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy.

See the whole thing at Cosmopetry.

Also visit Skywatch Friday.

Through The Light

The latest anthology from Cosmopetry is Through The Light described as:
COSMOPOETRY INTERNATIONALS XX:
WITH OR WITHOUT EINSTEIN,
THROUGH THE LIGHT!

-dedication to the International Year of Light 2015
by SARM's Cosmopoetry Master Club and Friends-
My own contribution is a haiga based on a view of the bandstand in Victoria Park, Denton.
well beyond the light
twenty-two miles a second
Spooky whizzes by
and is a reference to the comet/asteroid that passed by the Earth in 2015.

Mine is only one of many contributions of astronomical photographs and poems featuring cosmic events that happened in 2015. Credits go to
Coordinator Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Technical counsellor Valentin Grigore
Literary counsellor Arlene Carol
Web design Florin Alexandru Stancu

With the support of some admirable members of the
Science Fiction Poetry Association, Astronomers Without Borders
and International Meteor Organization

*

© 2015 SARM
(Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy)
A contribution to Skywatch Friday.

Astro-Haiga for SARM's International Short Astropoetry Gallery

as the tide rolls out
temporary pools reflect
the lowering sun

words & image © Gerald England

This haiga is included in the International Short Astropoetry Gallery, a project by SARM's Astropoetry Master Club coordinated by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe and Valentin Grigore in partnership with Astronomers Without Borders with the support of some members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association and International Meteor Organization, the astronomical circle of Bucharest National Children Palace and SRCSTV ("Youth for Future" Romanian Society for Culture and Science)

The project celebrates 20 years of existence of the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy (SARM).

The pages contain a wealth of photography, poetry, haiga from all over the world.

A contribution to Skywatch Friday and Weekend Reflections.

ABC Wednesday: R is forRealm of Telescopes

This haiga featuring my father at Jodrell Bank in 1971 is my contribution to Realm of Telescopes, an international cosmopoetic essay about telescopes centered around the SARM pilgrimage to GranTeCan.

Mike Simmons, founder/president of Astronomers Without Borders and chair of Global Astronomy Month writes

The great observatories of the world have always been places of pilgrimage for scientists and enthusiasts. They are the temples of wisdom of the modern age, where knowledge is captured in nothing less than the light of the Universe. Those who visit them are always humbled, sometimes by the technology and sheer mass of the huge instruments, other times by being in the presence of the seekers of the truths that the Universe hides. Sometimes those seekers are the "ghosts" of our history - long-gone predecessors who spent their lives building that knowledge a few photons at a time.

This is one of six webpages that have been compiled by the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy and coordinated by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe and Valentin Grigor.

• EXPEDITION TO EL GRAN TELESCOPIO CANARIAS is based on a SARM and Astro Travels expedition in October 2010, and was open to ulterior submissions from those who visited or dream to visit the biggest optical telescope in the world and the largest international concentration of telescopes in the northern hemisphere, placed in the Canary island of La Palma.


• TELESCOPES IN TIME AND SPACE is an astropoem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe in which he visits 21 telescopes.


• THE COSMIC BEAUTY OF LA PALMA contains a wealth of photographs of their expedition to the island.


• THE REALM OF TELESCOPES is a collection of personal contributions that adds to our collective knowledge and perception of great observatories.


• HAPPY OBSERVATIONAL NIGHTS IN LA PALMA provides us with just what the title says it does.


• POST-SCRIPTUM celebrates Global Astronomy Month, April 2011.

BBC News: Jodrell Bank observatory has been responsible for some hugely important astronomical discoveries since it was established after the Second World War, but there have been doubts over its future in recent years due to constant funding worries. Now it has been selected as the headquarters for a £1.3bn project to build the world's biggest radio telescope. The new headquarters at Jodrell Bank will open in January 2012, superseding the existing project office at the University of Manchester.

For more R posts visit ABC Wednesday.

ABC Wednesday: J is for the January 2011 Partial Solar Eclipse

The story is told on the Cosmopoetry website by SARM's Astropoetry Master Club and Friends.

On January 4, 2011 the old continent and large zones of Asia and Africa were spoiled by such an eclipse. although the sky did not break anywhere the winter clouds, an entire world vibrated for this phenomenon.


Moon and Venus over Targoviste © Valentin Grigore

*****

A Jubilee For The Foucault Pendulum
by Dimitrie Olenici

I made a jubilee experiment with the Foucault Pendulum at Iasi University, 50 years after a similar one made by Ghe. Jeverdan, Ghe. Rusu and V. Antonescu to the solar eclipse of February 15, 1961 when they discovered that the oscillation period of a pendulum changes during an eclipse. My experiment, made by a pendulum of 17.78 meters installed in an inferior room, confirmed their results one more time. A high moment, although I observed this eclipse at the subsoil.

*****

The Partial Solar Eclipse In Europe
by David Asher (Northern Ireland, UK, astronomer at Armagh Observatory, famous meteor shower predictor, discoverer of asteroids, co-star in Hollywood movie Armageddon)

At dawn on the New Year's fourth day
The sun was part eaten away.
The eclipse was quite deep,
But I was asleep -
What will other astronomers say?

*****

Tanka
by Gerald England (UK, Editor of New Hope International, honorary member of the International Writers and Artists Association, laureate of the Ted Slade Award)

an eclipse tonight
posted a friend on Facebook
but by then too late
out of my window blackness
others' visions seen online

*****

Pse 2011 In Magurele (Romania)
photograph © Andreea Fazacas

*****

Brief Escape From A Hysterical Town: Bucharest, January 4, 2011
haiku by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

Over a park
the eclipse like a
bird of fire.

*****

Hanne’S Object
or
A Parallel Thought During A Partial Solar Eclipse When The Sky Is Cloudy
by Steve Sneyd (UK, director of Hilltop Press and editor of Data Dump, laureate of the Peterson Trophy)

You praise blue gas ball
galaxy - big 10° K hot
yet no stars in it to
heat this mystery you smile
"as puzzling as me to you"

*****

Vampires And Eclipses
by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

Dracula is a vampire,
said someone,
falsifying the historical truth.

In this Romanian brave ruler's Capital,
Targoviste,
no observer of the 2011 partial solar eclipse
saw Vlad Tepes Draculea
(his real name)
eating our star.
Only the Moon's "body check"
to the Sun.

*****


Eclipse Among Snowflakes In Targoviste
photo © Cristian Daniel Grigore (age17);
haiku by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

among smowflakes
which are never twins
another unique eclipse

*****

So many potential observers were frustrated by the weather conditions but they manage to contribute some superb photographs nonetheless. The above are just a small sample. See them all at European Winter Astro-Story Of The Partial Solar Eclipse 2011.

For more J posts visit ABC Wednesday.

For more views of the heavens visit Skywatch Friday.

Global Astronomy Month 2010

The latest anthology page from our friends at SARM is Global Astronomy Month.

Valentin Grigore writes

Many people wanted another international year of astronomy because they felt that astronomy is not only a simple science and the sky is not only a simple study object, so the Global Astronomy Month came naturally.

GAM meant a special living under the starry canopy connected to the coming of the spring, when the sap of the Earth meets the sap of the Sky, and this union arouses all and gives life.

We had a month with many celestial events:
a splendid lunar circuit
(begun and ended with the full moon),
the planet Saturn like a "planet with handles"
(just as Galileo Galilei had seen it four centuries ago),
beautiful conjunctions,
and a supplementary sky gift,
the Lyrid meteor shower.

And sky lovers also organized a solar week, a lunar week, star parties and even remote astronomy programs.

We felt more,
although we had to confront
the barrier of light pollution,
a measure of human ignorance.

Our souls should reflect the light of the stars
just as it really is,
because astronomy is not only a simple science,
and the sky is not only a simple study object.

The sky is all!

The website has hundreds of photographs of the events they organised plus contributions from around the world.

UK contributions include:

Pluto is turning red
they tell us. Warns us of what
force melts its cold face?

Steve Sneyd

My own haiga which first appeared on Spring Haiku 2010.

and

BENEATH THE ASH CLOUD

Across a clear sky
Unsullied by vapour trails,
A meteor streaks.

John Francis Haines

24th April 2010 was

INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMY DAY

Let's celebrate cosmology,
planetology and astrometry,
galactic and extragalactic astronomy,
astrophysics and astrochemisry,
stellar astronomy,
astrobiology and astrophilosophy.

Aesthetically,
this itemization of the profound branches
of the "queen of sciences"
appears like a succession of rhymes.

But only watching and feeling the sky
we can celebrate astronomy
through astropoetry.

Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

The Coordinator's Last Words are

SARMs Astropoetry Master Club tried successfully to release this project before May 18th and May 24th, the birthdays of Steliana Gheorghe (1934-2009) and Costica Gheorghe (1927-2007), in order to honour their decisive role in the existence of the international contemporary astropoetry movement.

SARM's Astropoetry Master Club and Friends tried to make in this project not only the largest-ever web page of astropoetry and astropoetic images, but also a record of beauty regarding the cosmic reflection in the human soul.

And after all Astropoetry to the Global Astronomy Month 2010 represented the most beautiful gift for when I turned 50 years.

Andrei Dorian Gheorghe,
2010 May 14th

See it all by visiting Global Astronomy Month

ABC Wednesday: A is for Astropoetry

2009 was the International Year of Astronomy and the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy (SARM) have published a series of some 15 different pages on their Astropoetry site.

The page celebrating the 4th Quarter of the year has a whole host of photographs, cartoons and poetry including

MOON-JUPITER CONJUNCTION OVER TARGOVISTE
(2009.11.23)
astro-photo-poem by Valentin Grigore


The Moon and Jupiter gave again
a show in the evening sky,
a small present for those who
live in towns.

***

ICARUS ON LUNA
by Steve Sneyd

In crater deeps where
sun never reaches comet
head crashes dreams reflight

***

ACCELERATOR
by John Francis Haines

Particles hurtling towards one another
At the speed of light -
Just hope your planet isn't one of them.

***

COURTSHIP RITUAL
by Steve Sneyd

"Prove it" she said "bring
me from black hole's heart Hawking
radiation to
shine on my finger, show your
love", stroked Schrodinger's cat.

***

LAST ECLIPSE OF 2009
by Gerald England

five hours before
the end of the decade
above my window
the cold earth is eating
a piece of blue moon


PARTIAL LUNAR ECLIPSE OVER THE NORTH OF ROMANIA
photo by Constantin Psenitchi

In the Epilogue Andrei Dorian Gheorghe writes

If you daily watch the skies
and admire both
the people and the heavenly bodies,

if you respect and use sciences, techniques, arts and poetry
as means for enriching
knowledge, generosity, feelings and creativity,

and if for you
the celebration of astronomy
does never end,

then you are a
REAL SKY LOVER,
my dear friend!

For more A posts visit ABC Wednesday.

ASTRO-METEOR POETRY SHOW-PROJECT

© 2009, Valentin Grigore (President of SARM).

Since 1997, the scientific lectures of the annual International Meteor Conference (IMC) have concluded with an original Saturday night Astropoetry Show, combining astronomical poetry, drama, humour, music, arts, improvisations, etc, attracting over time participants from 17 countries and 3 continents.

As the founder and director of the Astropoetry Show, Andrei Dorian Gheorghe, had to remain in Romania to take care of his mother, hospitalized in a critical state of health and was unable to attend the IMC 2009 in Porec (Croatia, September 24-27), this traditional spectacle was replaced by THE METEOR POETRY POSTER, directed poetically by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe and photographically by Valentin Grigore.

Another humanistic initiative, the Meteor Contemporary Poetry Project, a periodic anthology published from 2002 to 2008, preserved in the electronic archive of the International Meteor Organization, was absorbed in 2009 by the project Astropoetry to the International Year of Astronomy.

Thus the 13th Astropoetry Show and the Meteor Contemporary Poetry Project was merged into a celebratory electronic page, including a meteor poetry prologue, new meteor poems from the summer of 2009 from all over the world (which reproduce much of the content of the IMC 2009 poster), astro-thoughts from the IMC 2009 participants, photographs, and a commemorative post-scriptum.

***

SUMMER METEOR POETRY 2009-

MOTTO:

a dusty filament
drifts across Earth's orbit
raining light

-Gerald England (U.K.,
Editor of New Hope International
and Honorary Member of the International Artists and Writers Academy);
first published in Meteor Contemporary Poetry Project 5,
IMO-News Mailing List, 2005 June 21st-

***
was my own contribution to the poster.


A METEOR OVER SAND WALK-WAYS - artwork © by Calin Niculae (SARM).

The ASTRO-METEOR POETRY SHOW-PROJECT is a special page realized by the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy-SARM with the support of some members of the International Meteor Organization, coordinated by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe, Alastair McBeath and Valentin Grigore, and web designed by Florin Stancu.

Astropoetry to the International Year of Astronomy 2009 2nd quarter.

MOON AND VENUS IN THE MORNING AURORA, 23rd April 2009 photo © Valentin Grigore.

The 2nd quarter issue of Astropoetry to the International Year of Astronomy has just been released.

It includes many photographs, artworks and poetry related to all aspects of astronomy.

Alastair McBeath (UK Vice-President of the International Meteor Organization) reports

April 4 brought another widely-seen fireball to the British Isles,
around 23:32 UT, the magnitude -8/-10 object probably moving roughly south to north over western Wales or the seas nearby. ... May 11 produced a magnitude -9 fireball at 21:35 UT or so ... Being up all the short night in June has much to recommend it (though not the unexpectedly late, patchy frost on June 17/18...), particularly when the crescent Moon starts or ends the night, and still more so when the Moon slips by a planet or two, like the brilliant Venus and the binocular-bright Mars on June 19.

Ion(ut) Moraru contributes HEAVENLY PARTY

The Moon, Mercury and the Pleiades
thought to make a party:

The Moon turned off the light on her surface,
Mercury turned to the Sun,
and the Pleiades exploded:
fireworks!

Alin Iosif wrotes about how he SAW VENUS DURING THE DAYLIGHT

At about 12 o’clock,
my boss asked me again what happened with me.
I tried to show him the reason, but he could find only the Moon.
It was enough:
he didn’t note me as an absent at the job office.

My own contribution is the haiku

something stirs
on one of the moons
of Saturn

Gerald England

John Francis Haines contributes ALONE, AGAIN

After the fury of the tsunami subsided,
We saw the Moon was gone,
Wrenched out of its orbit and flung
Across the sky, to become
Just another minor planet.

There are highlights of an Astro-philosphical debate on Global Warming.

Andrei Dorian Gheorghe in LIMITS writes

Using a lunette,
Galileo showed that
the sky of the fixed stars
is not a stellar limit.

Discovering the planet Uranus,
Herschel showed that
the planet Saturn
is not a planetary limit.

We still have to discover that
love and passion
are not human limits.

Marge Simon writes of THE AMERICAN SOLAR SYSTEM

Pluto remains number nine
in primary schools where
teachers must use manuals
updated time to time.

Astrophysicists may
change their minds...

Arlene Carol is

.. angry with the stars.
They are such liars.

Appearing to be there, when in reality,
They may have gone millennia ago.

Another page is dedicated to VISIONS OF A SUMMER SOLSTICE EXPEDITION, Bucegi Mountains, Romania, 18-21, June 2009.

This has even more photographs of the Milky Way, The Moon-Venus Conjugation, sunsets and many other astronomical phenomena captured amid magnificent scenery.

Astropoetry to the International Year of Astronomy 2009

Moon and Venus over the Royal Church in Targoviste, Romania, 2008-12-31 © Valentin Grigore introduces Astropoetry to the International Year of Astronomy 2009 by members and friends of the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy; Project Coordinator: Andrei Dorian Gheorghe; Project Designer: Florin Stancu.

Already published are a prologue including some excellent photographs and poetry concluding with an ASTROTIPURITURA by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

Choose the light, man, choose the high light,
Then follow it and become bright!

and the 1st Quarter.

Arlene Carol exhorts

Come, let us join together
To celebrate
All of these glorious celestial bodies
And other galactic orrery…

The poems and photographs record such events as the Moon-Venus Conjunction, Ursa Major over the Retezat Mountains, the Quadrantid meteor shower, Star trails of Orion and Canis Major, Moon sequences, the Rosette Nebula, the Sun Pillar, eclipses, Saturn's rings, Comets Lulin and Kushida, Northern Lights and halos.

My favourite poem (and not just because he is a friend from down the road) is EARTHSHINE by John Francis Haines (U.K. Leader of the Eight Hand Gang - British network of SF poets)

Basking in dim, reflected glory, the Old
Moon sleeps in the New Moon's arms, but behind
This faded face lurks the Darkside, forever
Hid from view, accessible only through
Direct visit by man or probe, a land
Beyond our ken, Luna's shadowy secret.

Three more collections are promised before the end of the year and I shall look forward to viewing them.

Favourite Constellations

Crux over Gemini Observatory, Mauna Kea, Hawaii
Photo: © Ovidiu Vaduvescu

This is taken from Favourite Consetellations, the latest offering from SARM’s Astropoetry Master Club and Friends coordinated by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe and designed by Florin Stancu after an idea by Mihai Petrache.

Ovidiu Vaduvescu writes

What do you say about the Southern Cross seen in other conditions (4200 m altitude, 12000 km and 12 h distance from Romania)? Aloha

My own contribution to the project is

in a cold field
on the other side of my world
the southern cross

Gerald England

a reflection from the day I went Stargazing in New Zealand.

Other contributions include

CONSTELLATIONS

88 optical illusions crawl across the sky
Trailing myths and legends in their wake,
As Gods and monsters slowly fade away
We'll find new shapes among the points of light
And tell ourselves new stories round the fire,
New myths and legends for a star-struck age.

John Francis Haines
(U.K., Leader of the Eight Hand Gang - British network of SF poets and Editor of its newsletter Handshake)

and

ALSO HER NAME'S INITIAL

Three she sky-traces
Cassiopeia's W
for woe, love-ending

Steve Sneyd
(U.K., Director of Hilltop Press and Editor of the Data Dump newsletter)

Perhaps my favourite though is this tanka

dogs bark
under Canis Major
I feel hunted
by a cell phone's
distant ringing

Deborah P. Kolodji
(U.S.A., President of the Science Fiction Poetry Association)

World Astrotipuritura Championships

I have just been informed that I am now a World Astrotipuritura Champion.
The full story is to be found on the World Astrotipuritura Championship website.

The "tipuritura" (from "tipat" in Romanian = scream) is the shortest poetic form in Romania, created in the northern region of Maramures to be screamed at folkloric parties. In the 1930s, inspired by the tragicomic spirit of the tipuritura, Stan Ioan Patras founded the Merry Cemetery in Sapanta (also in the Maramures zone) by realizing artistic works and writing short humorous poems on its tombs.

After 1995, Andrei Dorian Gheorghe adapted astronomically this poetic species, published an essay, Tipuritura - A Kind Of Romanian Haiku, in The Art of Haiku 2000 (edited in U.K. by Gerald England and New Hope International), and performed a few own astrotipurituras at

• the International Cosmopoetry Festival during SARM's EuRoEclipse Perseids Event 1999 in Targoviste (Romania)
• the Astropoetry Show (Astroshow) of the International Meteor Conference 1999 in Frasso Sabino (Italy)
• NASA's Leonid Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaign Workshop 2000 in Tel-Aviv (Israel).

The World Astrotipuritura Championship had the following rules

1. Each work must have two rhymed lines.
2. Each line must have seven or eight syllables.
3. Each work must have an astronomical content.
4. Each work must include (gallows) humour.

The finalists of the first World Astrotipuritura Championship were invited by the organizers generally after their achievements in astropoetry (astronomical poetry) in the last years or represent the most important people who have marked SARM's Cosmopoetry Festival history.

SARM (Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy) is the authority which patronized this World Championship). All astrotipurituras and connected works are presented in two languages:

• English (official for the foreign guests)
• Romanian (official for the finalists from SARM's country)

The Romanian translations from the English and the English translations from the Romanian were made by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe.

My contribution was:
Mars passes through the Great Bear
Is there anybody there?

Marte langa Ursa Mare:
"Cineva-i acolo oare?"

Gerald England

Our Eight Hand Gang leader contributed:
The Moon hangs pale above the trees -
Is it really ripe, green cheese?

Luna peste pomi se pierde -
O fi coapta branza verde?

I wonder if there's life on Mars?
Do they drive around in cars?

Ma-ntreb de-i viata pe Marte.
Au ei masini ca la carte?

Missed! The asteroid whizzed past;
Unfortunately, not the last.

Asteroid scos din turma.
Pacat ca nu-i cel din urma.

John Francis Haines
The other UK contributors are Steve Sneyd, Mandy Smith, Geoffrey H. Grayer, David Turner and Alastair McBeath.

Newton and the Striking Apple

Newton and the Striking Apple is the latest online anthology of astropoetry, astro-photo-poetry, astrohaiku and images by SARM and Friends.

It was coordinated by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe with the enthusiastic support of his parents Steliana (Stella) and Costica Gheorghe and designed by Gabriel Ivanescu.

Amongst the UK contributions are:

one bite enough, now
Eve knows all, spits rest through time
to wise up Newton

Steve Sneyd

An apple a day
Makes light work of gravity,
Pulls earth towards it.

John Francis Haines

a tired Newton
stretched out under a tree
was almost asleep

a falling apple
accelerated his brain
straight into orbit

Gerald England

apples fall red, green,
sungold, moonsilver: at last
worm-ridden one speaks

Steve Sneyd

A bop on the head
Drove the eureka moment
Deep into his brain

John Francis Haines

There are some quite fantastic images and photographs. Among my favourites are George Pascanu's Halo, Jean Dragesco's Great Orion Nebula, Eugen Florin Marc's Moon-Venus Occultation, Mihai Cuzic's Strange Cloud, Eugen Florin Marc's Sundog, Yasuhiro Tonomura's Aurora Borealis in Alaska and Maximilian Teodorescu's Colorful Moon.

I especially enjoyed seeing the lovely haiga by Mandy Smith & Kris Foo.

Altogether it is a beautiful compilation.

To A Gate of Heaven

To A Gate of Heaven is a photographic poem by Gabriel Ivanescu on his 2007 expedition to Gura Portitei (Little Gate Mouth), Romania.

Astro-Haiku Guests:
Zigmund Tauberg, Andrei Dorian Gheorghe, Valentin Grigore and Dominic Diamant

Special Astro-Haiku Guest: Gerald England (U.K.)

Sunspot haiku

photograph © Eugen Florin Marc taken April 28 2007 in Romania.

Sunspot haiku is another astro-haiku project coordinated by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe and designed by Gabriel Ivanescu for SARM (Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy)

among the many haiku contributions are

a southern blemish
three times earth's size
tomorrow's aurora

Gerald England


Galileo first
to see spots on sun cried "It's
not perfect": love smiled.

Steve Sneyd

Deep Space Objects

Top Thirty-One DSO is a new collection of Astro-haiku by SARM (Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy) and Friends with artworks and collages by Calin Niculae.

Deep Space Objects is a term applied to various entities found deep in space. They include

• Galaxies: large groups of stars revolving around a center. There are many kinds of galaxies, but the main classifications are spiral, elliptical, and irregular.
• Globular Clusters: a group of stars that are bunched up into a sphere.
• Open Clusters: here the stars are grouped much more randomly. Open clusters are younger than globular clusters and have fewer stars.
• Nebulae: clouds of gas in space. Nebulae are usually left behind by dying stars.

Charles Messier compiled a catalogue of such objects in the 1700s. Astronomers at the time were trying to discover comets. In his search for more comets, Charles Messier would often find bright fuzzy things that could have been comets, except that they didn't move. He wrote the location of these down so that he could avoid them later. His catalogue is a hodgepodge of some of the most beautiful deep space objects in the northern sky.

My contribution concerns M27 which is not the motorway around Southampton but Messier Object #27, the Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula

first found nebula
in the last named constellation
is Goldilocks there?

gerald england

Steve Sneyd writes about M1 (the Crab Nebula in Taurus), M42 (the Great Orion Nebula), M45 (the Pleiades in Taurus) and M51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici). Other contributors include John Francis Haines, Deborah P Kolodji and David Asher.

Project coordinator, Andrei Dorian Gheorghe ends with

Back to M17

even as a nebula
omega is not an end
alpha is close

This is just one of a number of projects on SARM's Cosmopoetry website.

Moon & Fellows

sharp frost
on this stark night
sickle moon

haiku & photo © Gerald England, 2003

is one of my contributions to Moon & Fellows, the latest international astro-photo-poetic essay by SARM.

McNaught captured in words and pictures

photo © Danut Ionescu, 2007
words © Andrei Dorian Gheorghe, 2007

Our friends at SARM have come up with another compilation of astrohaiku and photographs. This one is dedicated to Comet McNaught.

My poem from the site has already appeared here.

Like me, several people write about their inability to see the comet because of bad weather or simply being in the wrong place. Arlene Carol Brill in Turkey writes a McGonagall-esque poem which includes lines such as:-

Searching the fiery horizon with straining eyes
For the glorious tail of the comet.
McNaught is NOT.

...

I was there
but McNaught
was naught!

but eventually

In broad daylight - I see it!
Victorious, eyes wide in deep amazement -
McNaught at noon! ...

The photographs range from North America through Europe to Siberia, but the best are those from the Southern Hemisphere, where the comet's tail is particulary prominent.

Here are three haiku from UK poets:

Just once, this fiery
Streak will enliven our skies -
Then go forever

John Francis Haines

brief sun pasture graze
intent, don’t notice sheep-drag
tail liar-nose grows

Steve Sneyd

hemlock trees-
the comet fans out over
Swifts Creek

Alan Summers

Lunar eclipse poetry

After I published pictures yesterday of the weekend's lunar eclipse, Lyn Moir sent me two pictures she'd taken in St Andrews, Fife.

She also sent me a copy of this poem. It is a slight reworking of an earlier poem about the 2001 eclipse which was first published in Poetry Scotland.

LUNAR ECLIPSE 2007

No wild coronas blazing in the dark,
no rings of fire, no diamonds in the sky,
your shadowing more subtle than the blind
black masking of your lover's face, no stark
annihilation of the light, you mark
this darkness with passivity, resigned
to loss of his reflection, dignify
your enforced mourning with consummate art

and summon up the spectrum, put on shades
of crimson, scarlet, purple, blue, a screen
to cloak your temporary widowhood;
you flaunt voluptuous contours as light fades,
gaining solidity, and with it seem
to change, to be the entity you should.

Lyn Moir

I wrote a haiku sequence at the time of the 2001 eclipse. It was translated into Romanian by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe and published by SARM (Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy)

ECLIPSE SEQUENCE by Gerald England SECVENTELE ECLIPSEI in romaneste de Andrei Dorian Gheorghe January 9th 2001
bright full moon shines through thin cloud - a plane flies over	luminoasa luna plina straluce prin nor subtire- un avion zboara deasupra-i
the shadow bites - level with big planets Capella shines	umbra musca nivel cu mari planete Capella straluceste
four-fifths gone more stars appear Venus fades	patru-cinci duse mai multe stele apar Venus se ofileste
from her sick-bed my wife watches the action on television	din patu-i de boala sotia mea priveste actiunea la televizor
frosty night - deep red disc in Gemini	noapte inghetata disc rosu adanc in Gemenii
light rays spread to Pollux and Castor - crescent emerges	raze de lumina se raspandesc spre Castor si Pollux- crescente rasarind
half moon Procyon and Sirius twinkle low	luna jumatate Procyon si Sirius licaresc incet
small shadow left the biting wind sends me indoors	mica umbra scade vantul muscator ma trimite inauntru
the whole moon south in winter sky - curtains close	luna intreaga sud in cer de iarna- cortinele se trag