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.

Llandudno War Memorial and the Moon

Following up from yesterday's Llandudno view here is another - this time showing the back of the War Memorial.

The War Memorial which was erected in the 1920s, was designed by by S Colwyn Foulkes. It takes the form of a rusticated granite obelisk with a golden ball finial with flame cresting. The memorial is flanked to North-west and South-east by strips of ground set out with low slender bollards of granite and with four contemporary lamp standards with wide fluted circular shafts with moulded bases, each shaft surmounted by multi ball lamp finials of glass.

In the background are wind turbines far out at sea.

Beyond the golden ball finial was a half-moon.

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.

August evening

August evening
so many colours
so many swirls

words & image © Gerald England

This is one of two of my haiga that are included in International Master Festival, 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.

Evening Energy

evening energy
reaches out across sand
and silent sea

words & image © Gerald England

This is one of two of my haiga that are included in International Master Festival, 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 ABC Wednesday.

Grey Moon over Garside Street

(Click on image to view full-size version)
One afternoon last week I saw the moon over Garside Street - see the scene on Hyde Daily Photo.

I zoomed in to get a closer look.

Coloured versions can be seen on Hyde DP Xtra.

For Skywatch Friday and The Weekend in Black and White.

International Olympicosmpoetriada

EARTH AND SKY

This astro-photo-art-poem by Arlene Carol (USA, residing in Turkey) precedes my astrohaiku in the latest web production by SARM MASTER FESTIVAL (PART II OF MASTER OLYMPICOSMOPOETRIADA)

***

across light years
googols of radio waves
oscillate

Gerald England

The anthology of super photographs and poetry also includes

ESCAPING QUESTION

Whispers her dream snake
tongue licked up from pyramid
peak caught fly wise fall
of meteor swallowed spark
reawake mummy's goodbye smile

by Steve Sneyd

SIGNALS, DEDICATED FROM THE SKY

In the picture above, on the bottom left, you see the lunar disk. Ufo Analyzer software has classified the fireball as belonging to the class "J5_And" Andromenidi with estimated magnitude, but perhaps underestimated: - (minus) 4.5!
Latitude and Longitude of observing station:
Lat 46.933300 North
Long 26.366600 East
Date of sighting: 19th November 2011

image © Alfredo Caronia (Italy,
co-discoverer of 5 asteroids, established in Romania)

is followed by

3.3.12

I missed the fireball streak across the sky
That set alarm calls ringing across the land
As people thought a plane was crashing, or
A UFO had brought aliens from on high
(Their mission to invade had long been planned)
But, most likely it was just a meteor.

by John Francis Haines

Another contribution by Steve Sneyd is

TANKA

Twin suns death dancing
tear gobbets of hot flesh : shared
world pretends nothing
much just presents a gain who
hurl harmless lost meteor dreams


Valentin Grigore's VENUS AND JUPITER OVER TARGOVISTE, 15th March 2012

is followed by

twilight
an incoming jet flies by
Venus twinkles

Gerald England

All of this is just a minute part of the International Olympicosmpoetriada coordinated by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe and Valentin Grigore of the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy.

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.

ABC WednesdayE is for Eclipse Watchers

Do you remember where you were on August 11th 1999?

This was the day when a total eclipse of the sun was visible in the UK. I was at a meeting in offices on Oldham Street, Hyde. A few minutes before the event we took a break and went out into the street to witness the event.


It was quite cloudy so we didn't get a really clear view and you had to have a pair of special eclipse-viewing spectacles to avoid damaging your eyes.

I just pointed my camera in the right direction and hoped for the best.

This is the best I managed.

For more E posts visit ABC Wednesday.

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.

Galileo

This wordle by the late Mandy Smith introduces an anthology of Galilean poetry dedicated to he who said E pur si muove or Eppur si muove (And yet it does move) and adapted the lunette for astronomy, and to those who cultivated his memory on October 22nd-24th 2009 through Galilean Nights, a cornerstone project of the International Year of Astronomy.

Valentin Grigore of the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy-SARM organised a festival in the country's former capital Targoviste. The Galilean Nights / Nopti Galileene festival included a prologue begun on 21st October 2009, an Orionid meteor shower observational night in Priboiu (15 km from Targoviste), interviews for national and local mass-media, activities in the central square of Targoviste, tents with astronomical products, debates, projections of images, movies and planetarium programs, workshops, astroelectronic music, 3D images, remote observations, an astroart exhibition made by children, and especially telescopic observations of the Sun, Jupiter, the Moon and the Pleiades.

There was also a special live broadcast Us and the Sky / Noi si Cerul, on Columna TV, the Galilean Gala Astroshow at the Dambovita History Museum, composed of an astrophotography exhibition, astromovies, the International Galilean Poetry Evening and an astrofolk music recital which show also represented a gala of SARM's yearly Cosmopoetry Festival, founded in 1996.

My own contribution was THE GREAT GALILEO SPIN which I wrote at the behest of the organisers.

THE GREAT GALILEO SPIN

Pisa born man
whose father carries out experiments on strings
to support his musical theories.

Off you go to the Camaldolese Monastery
on the magnificent forested hillside
at Vallombrosa.

They want you to be a medicine man
but the mathematics of Euclid and Archimedes
mesmerise you more.

In "La Balancitta" you describe Archimedes' method
of finding the specific gravities of substances
using a balance.

You correspond with Clavius and Guidobaldo del Monte
concerning the theorems you have proved
on the centres of gravity of solids.

You lecture on the dimensions and location of hell
in Dante's Inferno
at the Academy in Florence.

The idea comes that one can test
theories about falling bodies
using an inclined plane
to slow down
the rate of
descent.

At the university of Padua
you teach Euclid's geometry
and geocentric astronomy
to medical students.

In three public lectures
you argue against Aristotle,
use parallax arguments to prove
that the New Star
can not be close to the Earth
and come out as a Copernican.

You grind and polish lenses
until you have an instrument
with a magnification of around eight or nine.

You demonstrate to the Venetian Senate
the commercial and military applications
of the telescope you call a perspicillum
for ships at sea
and sell the sole rights
for manufacture to the Senate.

In the book "Starry Messenger"
you claim to have seen
mountains on the Moon,
four small bodies orbiting Jupiter
and proved the Milky Way
is made up of tiny stars.

In a letter to the Grand Duchess
you vigorously attack the followers of Aristotle,
arguing strongly
for a non-literal interpretation
of Holy Scripture
when that would contradict
facts about the physical world
proved by mathematical science.

You quite clearly state
that the Copernican theory
is not just a mathematical calculating tool,
but a physical reality.

You hold that the Sun is located
at the centre of the revolutions
of the heavenly orbs
and does not change place,
and that the Earth rotates on itself
and moves around it.

You confirm this view
not only by refuting Ptolemy's and Aristotle's arguments,
but also by producing many for the other side,
especially some pertaining to physical effects
whose causes perhaps cannot be determined
in any other way,
and other astronomical discoveries
that clearly confute the Ptolemaic system
but agree admirably with this other position.

Found guilty of heresy
and condemned to lifelong imprisonment,
the sentence amounts to house arrest,
living first with the Archbishop of Siena,
then later returning home to Arcetri
though spending the rest of your life watched over
by officers from the Inquisition.

Your "Discourses"
are smuggled out of Italy,
and taken to Leyden in Holland
and published.

There you develop
ideas of the inclined plane
assuming that the speed acquired
by the same movable object
over different inclinations of the plane are equal
whenever the heights of those planes are equal.

You describe an experiment using a pendulum
to verify this property of inclined planes
and give a theorem on acceleration of bodies in free fall
and finally conclude
that the distance that a body moves from rest
under uniform acceleration
is proportional to the square of the time taken.

You die in early 1642,
your body concealed
and only placed in a fine tomb
in the church in 1737
by the civil authorities against
the wishes of many in the Church.

On 31st October 1992,
350 years after your death,
Pope John Paul II gives an address
on behalf of the Catholic Church
in which he admits
that errors had been made
by the theological advisors in your case.

He declares the Galileo case closed,
but he does not admit
they were wrong to convict
on a charge of heresy
because of the belief
that the Earth rotates round the sun.

O Galileo
how do you spin in your grave?

GERALD ENGLAND

Read all the poems and see all the maginificent photos at Galilean poetry.

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.

Planet X

I recently got this message from John Hartley with a request to pass the information on to All of Space!

Bad Timing

Mayan calendar
Ends in two thousand and twelve
My mortgage paid off

JC Hartley

Intrigued by stories that Nibiru, the fabled Planet X, is due to return to our solar system in the year 2012, messing with the Earth's axis, and wreaking wholesale havoc through tsunami and climatic change, and/or ushering in a new age of enlightenment, it occurred to me that here was material for a volume of Planet X related poems.

For those unfamiliar with Planet X theory there are websites, and individual blogs, ranging over the scientific, the compellingly scholarly, the cheerfully debunking, and the just plain bonkers. Some commentators locate Planet X as a servant of two masters, orbiting between our own sun and its dark twin; some go so far as to identify the system ruled by this dark star as the realm of the fallen angels.

Anyway you get the picture. With a bit of research, or else just by making it up, there should be enough to go on to supply poems dealing with ecology, chaos theory, hard science, hard science fiction, soft science fiction, astrophysics, metaphysics, theology, ethnography, and stuff about personal relations.

In line with the rising curve in production values of Othername Press titles the book will incorporate original commissioned illustrations, and hopefully an introduction/foreword from someone suitably hip from the scientific community.

Submissions can be sent by snail mail to Othername Press, 14 Rosebank, Rawtenstall, Rossendale, BB4 7RD, UK, or by email (in the body of the text, attachments will not be opened; put Planet X in the subject line), to othernamepress@yahoo.co.uk.

Please enclose SAE for return of postal submissions & acknowledgement of acceptance if required, but please be patient as the final shape of the book may take some time. I also work and study and have considerable claims on my time, as do we all. There is no limit to the number of submissions, but please, no Norse sagas. Payment by copy as usual.

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)