Writing prompt for tinywords 17.2
Welcome to Mars. Plenty of room to roam and scout out that perfect picnic spot. Or maybe you see something entirely different.
In this writing prompt we share a scene from a rover’s point of view. No, not that kind of rover. The interstellar data-collecting kind on wheels. Check out this truly other-worldly scene taken by Opportunity, the Mars rover that has been roaming that desolate landscape since 2004. The robot sent back this image from its extended vacation.
We hope it sparks in you some untapped poem. Send it to us! Not any poem: In keeping with our tinywords ethos of course, we are looking for haiku or other tiny poems. Brevity, please.
Use the comments box below to share your response. We’ll share the best discovery to open the new issue of tinywords (17.2) due out in late September, 2017. Thanks.
Thanks for dropping by and for sharing your poems.
August 14th, 2017 at 1:02 pm
oh, no!
go back! I forgot
the phone charger!
August 14th, 2017 at 3:12 pm
that would be me!
August 14th, 2017 at 1:04 pm
The lonely robot
Sixty million miles away
Searching endlessly
August 14th, 2017 at 1:08 pm
Damn it
Red Planet
I love you
August 14th, 2017 at 1:09 pm
twin rows of staples
across her abdomen
the promise
of new life comes
at a price
August 14th, 2017 at 1:59 pm
I love your spin on Mars!
August 20th, 2017 at 1:37 pm
Just now getting "around" to saying thank you–appreciate your reading my work!
August 19th, 2017 at 9:21 pm
I love where you've gone with this tanka.
August 20th, 2017 at 1:36 pm
Thank you for reading–and taking time to comment. I thought I might counter the popular patriarchal view by asking readers to consider that the Red Planet might just be feminine in nature…
August 23rd, 2017 at 2:00 pm
Hmmmm, I like that idea. It would be an interesting prompt for a group of women poets. :)
August 14th, 2017 at 1:12 pm
red dirt tracks
swallowed by
the dark maw
of Mars
August 14th, 2017 at 1:18 pm
Cragged regolith hills
Wind-beaten into powder
Now soft red, red, red
August 14th, 2017 at 1:19 pm
This barren red
Will make for one
Casual conquest
August 14th, 2017 at 1:20 pm
endless opportunity
roving Mars alone
for now
August 14th, 2017 at 1:22 pm
Searching for signs of life you are the sign of life…
August 14th, 2017 at 1:24 pm
ever onward
seeking to find
ghosts of mars
August 14th, 2017 at 1:24 pm
tread tracks in red clay
suddenly Mars
doesn't seem so far away
August 14th, 2017 at 1:26 pm
roving Spirit died
but brother Opportunity
thirsts for more red dust
August 14th, 2017 at 1:36 pm
On the hilltop
Bradbury points
Burroughs smiles
Rover moves on
August 14th, 2017 at 1:43 pm
rover crosses
the waterless frontier
red sun and red sand
August 14th, 2017 at 1:49 pm
night beach, silver-white:
how many live below us
unseen? and above?
August 14th, 2017 at 1:50 pm
nature still red–
cold and dust
for teeth and claws
August 14th, 2017 at 2:14 pm
deserted trail
I walk till my shadow
disappears
August 16th, 2017 at 2:26 am
I really like the passage of time suggested in this.
August 14th, 2017 at 2:15 pm
he scans
the empty landscape
lonely robot
August 14th, 2017 at 2:16 pm
alone on the path
all the meaning
i can't find
August 14th, 2017 at 2:47 pm
the scent of rain
birdsong stretches
as far as Mars
August 14th, 2017 at 2:48 pm
war moon
the flickering of humans
at birdsong
August 16th, 2017 at 12:33 pm
This reminds me of the planet of the apes, but much more complicated.
Mars, the war planet.
August 16th, 2017 at 2:44 pm
Thank you for your comment. Yes, it could be applied to Mars, or one of its two moons.
The haiku was originally published by Asahi Shimbun for the blood moon issue, October 2nd 2015, for the eclipse of 9/28/15
Publication Credit: Asahi Shimbun (Japan 2015)
the blood moon issue, Oct 2 for the eclipse of 9/28
2nd magazine publication:
Prune Juice : Journal of Senryu, Kyoka, Haibun & Haiga Scifaiku feature Issue 21: March, 2017 ed. Steve Hodge
Anthology Credits:
Heart Breaths: Book of Contemporary Haiku ed. Jean LeBlanc
ISBN: 9789385945038 (Cyberwit March 5, 2016); Pegasus
And forthcoming: The Haiku Anthology ed. Santosh Kumar (Cyberwit, Summer 2017)
'Birdsong' tends to conjure up the First World War (1914-18) for British/Commonwealth troops, and alludes also to the novel of the same name by Sebastian Faulks.
The ancient Greeks certainly glorified Mars as a symbol for war, which was carried forward by the Roman Republic and its later pre-Christian Empire.
deeply appreciate your comment.
warm regards,
Alan
co-founder, Call of the Page
August 14th, 2017 at 2:49 pm
the stars dimming I adjust the astronaut in me
August 20th, 2017 at 1:43 pm
I really admire that within the imaginative, almost childlike perspective of this haiku is a sense of reflection and personal awareness, as well as a sense of personal responsibility. Let us hope we can all call upon our inner astronauts to keep those stars bright-shining!
August 20th, 2017 at 2:52 pm
Thank you, that's very kind. We are all astronauts, as if we could travel just a few hundred light years beyond our planet, we'd see it spinning rapidly around, without politics and frontiers etc…
August 21st, 2017 at 2:10 am
Voyager One
a pale blue dot grows fainter
August 21st, 2017 at 4:19 am
Great!
escape velocity
the moon pulls oceans
behind Apollo 11
Alan Summers
“Rocket Dreams” commission 2007
Read/performed U.K. National Poetry Day October 4th 2007 with Space Historian Piers Bizony and NASA images, as part of World Space Week
August 22nd, 2017 at 8:59 am
mars landing-
a tendril of red dust
shifts from a footfall
Alan Summers
Publication credits: tinywords (2007)
eBook: Dylan Tweney “Practical Haiku: How Reading and Writing an Ancient Form of Poetry Can Change Your Life.” (ebook 2010)
August 22nd, 2017 at 10:44 am
summer shadows
moonlight shifts the plains
August 22nd, 2017 at 2:23 pm
Great!
I created a haibun around a sad futuristic version of the original Normandy landings called "Nova Normandy 3044". I think a simple internet search of the title should locate it for you.
warm regards,
Alan Summers
August 22nd, 2017 at 8:04 pm
Sounds good. Thanks!
martin
August 22nd, 2017 at 8:30 pm
…read it. DOUBLE PLUS GOOD!
from tendrils of Enceladus spider’s silhouette
August 22nd, 2017 at 10:06 pm
Thanks Martin!
August 22nd, 2017 at 9:17 am
total eclipse
a dust devil settles
in the umbra
August 14th, 2017 at 2:50 pm
sharkskin shoes
the whisper of nanobots
in his breath
August 14th, 2017 at 2:50 pm
gun-ship hues
the different spellings
in alphabet spaghetti
August 14th, 2017 at 2:50 pm
fifth kind encounter
humans replace crows
as an idiom of murder
August 14th, 2017 at 2:50 pm
winding sheet
the slow egress
of android Fred
August 14th, 2017 at 2:50 pm
candy shop
uncoiling a moon
in a fragile sky
August 14th, 2017 at 2:55 pm
dark and dreary
is anyone
home
August 14th, 2017 at 2:59 pm
just over the hill
more unanswered
questions
August 14th, 2017 at 3:00 pm
Mars rover
fueling
our curiosity
August 14th, 2017 at 3:09 pm
Distant
Still
Horizon
Still
Distant
August 14th, 2017 at 3:56 pm
seeking prime numbers—
what if Martians write haiku
in 5-7-5…?
August 19th, 2017 at 5:08 am
their world so bleak
instead of primes
Martians visualize the lines
_____________
_____________________
_____________
August 20th, 2017 at 1:21 pm
Way to get right to the short-long-short of it all, Don (and in cherita-form, too)! I like how this visual poem mimics the rover's tracks in terms of the negative space between the lines. That idea of negative space seems particularly appropriate in this otherworld context.
August 14th, 2017 at 4:15 pm
Mars too
waiting…
for life
August 14th, 2017 at 4:16 pm
Mars rovers
the science fiction
in all of us
August 14th, 2017 at 4:20 pm
red tracks in the sand
I hold my breath
August 14th, 2017 at 4:30 pm
the national inquirer
digging-up dirt
on Mars
August 14th, 2017 at 4:49 pm
the empty landscape
August 14th, 2017 at 4:50 pm
the empty landscape
for miles ahead
infertility
August 14th, 2017 at 6:15 pm
Discovery
Traveler across desert wastes,
Searching, ever searching,
For that oasis rare,
Sands that stretch forever,
Winds that never were,
Hill after hill
and Dune after Dune,
Is that an Omam's tent I see?
Does Ozymandius spare his water?
Where does this travail end?
In Opportunity's grasp,
Lands that never were.
August 14th, 2017 at 6:47 pm
new road
red planet
also begins in dust
August 14th, 2017 at 9:09 pm
makes Bob Sharp happy
that we keep going forward
and don't look back
August 14th, 2017 at 10:47 pm
aimless land rover
scours the planets red sand
no wind covers its tracks
August 15th, 2017 at 12:14 am
burnt sienna sand
baked into the landlay
the orbits' oven
August 15th, 2017 at 12:28 am
.
the whisper-hiss
of solar energy
tracking Mars
.
August 15th, 2017 at 12:43 am
Earth to Mars
different desert
same dearth
August 15th, 2017 at 12:54 am
.
surveying space
a phantom agronomist
slaving
.
August 15th, 2017 at 1:43 am
roving
for science sake
graffiti mars
virgin red plain
while home burns
August 15th, 2017 at 1:51 am
new challenges
on the horizon
red dust
August 15th, 2017 at 2:28 am
Mars rover the forever of our tread
August 15th, 2017 at 2:41 am
no regrets
if I never go roving
this way again
August 15th, 2017 at 3:04 am
route to Mars
the man's wisdom
of his sins
August 15th, 2017 at 3:48 am
Endless dirt
not one damn Martian
cancel war
August 15th, 2017 at 4:10 am
withered earth
I search for the ghost
of something
August 15th, 2017 at 4:34 am
how peaceful
the planet of war
no-fly zone
August 15th, 2017 at 5:28 am
adventure in my blood future generations
August 30th, 2017 at 6:57 pm
Agnes, you need to vote for yourself, to bump this up a few pages.
It is Good, woman!
Jan
September 26th, 2017 at 7:18 am
Thanks Jan, maybe I can recycle it somewhere that accepts previous online un-edited presence.
August 15th, 2017 at 6:08 am
finding fresh tracks
it didn't make…
not alone after all
August 15th, 2017 at 6:19 am
Enroute to Mars
I take a devour
through the moon land
to keep my darling
smile for ever.
August 15th, 2017 at 7:33 am
distant perspective
future horizon same as the red past
onward
August 15th, 2017 at 7:50 am
new picture from mars
the mission engineer
grabs a burger
August 15th, 2017 at 8:00 am
the children
want to go to Mars
climate change
August 15th, 2017 at 9:42 am
inching forward
unsettled dust reveals
milestone
August 15th, 2017 at 10:00 am
the first tracks
air, oceans, cities
dragged behind
August 15th, 2017 at 10:27 am
home on Mars
why talk about dust?
August 15th, 2017 at 10:36 am
unsettled dust
red planet scores a point
with human mind
August 15th, 2017 at 10:44 am
now part of
the mythology
Mars rovers
August 15th, 2017 at 11:16 am
cold and dark Mars
we did enough to live
in the dark
August 15th, 2017 at 11:53 am
our friendship endures
even when we don't know
what to expect
August 15th, 2017 at 11:55 am
red planet
piecing together its past
to shed light on our future
August 15th, 2017 at 12:03 pm
earthrise what we used to take for granted
August 16th, 2017 at 2:27 am
Lovely.
August 15th, 2017 at 12:05 pm
lingering drought
the dowser points her rod
to the sky
August 15th, 2017 at 12:39 pm
golf course designer
sees the perfect spot
for the first tee
August 15th, 2017 at 2:46 pm
exploring the unknown
the path
out of loneliness
August 15th, 2017 at 6:48 pm
blue sunset
on a red planet
rover tracks
(published in Scifaikuest, Aug 2009, but couldn't resist posting it since it fits the photo)
August 15th, 2017 at 6:59 pm
tracks across the planet no flags
August 15th, 2017 at 7:11 pm
Mars welcomes humans
ready-made tracks
for war tankers
August 15th, 2017 at 7:38 pm
earthrise
so much to write about
home
August 15th, 2017 at 7:52 pm
earthrise
so much write about
home
August 15th, 2017 at 7:59 pm
Mars!
were we not together
before big bang?
August 15th, 2017 at 8:02 pm
a child’s play
connecting dots
next is Mars
August 15th, 2017 at 8:10 pm
lovers
a whole world
between them
August 15th, 2017 at 10:25 pm
on any planet's path
one step after another
August 16th, 2017 at 12:19 am
born of fire, rose red
billions in displaced ash
double underlined
August 16th, 2017 at 1:16 am
Exploring new possibilities each time
Infinite and endless is the landscape
August 16th, 2017 at 2:25 am
late night drinks downhill all the way home
August 16th, 2017 at 5:04 am
she glares
towards him
Venus vs. Mars
August 16th, 2017 at 6:41 am
dementia
thoughts and words
drifting into darkness
August 16th, 2017 at 6:42 am
EQUALS
=======
SEQUEL
August 16th, 2017 at 6:53 am
scientists
sifting through data
collecting possibilities
August 16th, 2017 at 6:59 am
another drought
she adds burnt sienna
to her palette
September 21st, 2017 at 8:12 pm
art and life . . .
August 16th, 2017 at 7:32 am
you
were
out of
control when
whatever chased you
beyond its alien abyss,
prompted your message:
S O S
p l e a s e b r i n g
m e
h o m e
August 16th, 2017 at 9:37 am
the robot's gaze another world to imagine
August 16th, 2017 at 10:29 am
alone on mars
hoping for the message
to shut me down
August 16th, 2017 at 10:46 am
bottle trees on Mars
silicon most common
black loam humus not at all
growing bottle trees
August 16th, 2017 at 12:23 pm
no mars bars here
I'll have a
bloody mary
August 16th, 2017 at 12:25 pm
Oops, Diane not Diaen
August 16th, 2017 at 12:35 pm
no mars bars here
I'll have
a bloody mary
August 16th, 2017 at 2:55 pm
Mars’ barren landscape
uncontrolled climate change
on Earth
August 16th, 2017 at 6:56 pm
earthly pleasures
my monk’s mind
on Mars
August 16th, 2017 at 8:11 pm
tracks on Mars
my mythological mind
open to questions
August 17th, 2017 at 7:46 am
on a dusty road
a rover seeks a life
she never knew
August 17th, 2017 at 8:42 pm
impermanence
the map i’m using
out of date
August 18th, 2017 at 6:40 am
far from home
the broken colours
out of my dream
August 18th, 2017 at 7:41 am
tracks in the dust
all my life
in plain view
August 18th, 2017 at 1:06 pm
hazy moons
new data arrives
on the martian spring
August 18th, 2017 at 3:10 pm
red planet hills
brick tracks on horizon
lead to life
August 19th, 2017 at 2:20 pm
does my butt look big
in this thin atmosphere
wonders Mars
who comes in fourth
blushing those crater cheeks
August 19th, 2017 at 3:46 pm
ha!
August 19th, 2017 at 3:34 pm
then again maybe it was the wind road to nowhere
August 19th, 2017 at 9:36 pm
a dust bowl once more déjà vu en rouge
August 20th, 2017 at 1:39 am
Earth
one day
perhaps
if
August 20th, 2017 at 5:05 am
mission to earth
exploring life
year 2117
August 20th, 2017 at 7:55 am
out of touch
the slow passing
of seasons
August 20th, 2017 at 8:00 am
the retired astronaut
asleep on his side —
above his shoulders
a smoke detector’s light
burns red
August 20th, 2017 at 9:51 am
In front of me
looks like
a mount of Venus
August 20th, 2017 at 1:30 pm
hemoglobin
iron atoms
binding vertebrates
this taste for blood—
we are the real Gods of War
our own Earth, a casualty
August 20th, 2017 at 7:40 pm
the sun
lacking any warmth
at this distance
there's a whole world of people
between you and me
August 21st, 2017 at 3:31 am
alien sky
i wait for
earthrise
August 21st, 2017 at 4:08 am
from a path
to the pathless path …
autumn trek
August 21st, 2017 at 7:11 am
wagon ho!
p u
a n
r i
a v
l e
l r
e s
l e
August 21st, 2017 at 7:14 am
(I typed it with space between the words 'parallel' and 'universe,' like wagon tracks, but it didn't show up like that!)
August 21st, 2017 at 5:38 pm
eclipse over, we drive home —
each freeway viaduct
casting its shadow
August 21st, 2017 at 10:41 pm
ring eclipse
a dust devil darkens
the moon’s shadow
https://youtu.be/OyZoD7BRTtg
August 22nd, 2017 at 9:40 am
near the Martian rover a dust devil’s purr
August 22nd, 2017 at 3:57 pm
red planet—
the distance a dream
has to travel
August 23rd, 2017 at 2:28 am
Territory earmarked
Possessiveness
Climbs new Martian heights ~
August 24th, 2017 at 7:47 am
to news headlines
“man may live on Mars”
opened my eyes
from deep meditation
on leaving earthly pleasures
August 24th, 2017 at 10:44 am
blackness gives to red
inspiration births life
welcome to Mars
August 24th, 2017 at 12:18 pm
tracks
line the sandbox
summer drought
August 25th, 2017 at 8:56 am
a grain
this universal dust
we are
August 25th, 2017 at 8:58 am
a grain
of universal dust
we are
August 25th, 2017 at 10:13 am
one grain
of universal dust
we are
August 25th, 2017 at 11:21 am
Mars rover
grasping
at rocks
August 25th, 2017 at 3:31 pm
one grain
the universal dust
we are
August 25th, 2017 at 6:12 pm
strange
yet familiar horizon
my ticket
to Mars includes an afterlife
with Ray Bradbury
August 26th, 2017 at 3:23 pm
looking back
missed
opportunity
August 26th, 2017 at 7:20 pm
from now on
the dust
always redder
on the other
side of the hill
August 27th, 2017 at 10:03 am
.
summerheatafterglowinfadingtaillights
.
August 27th, 2017 at 10:44 am
desert trail
I step deeper
into myself
August 28th, 2017 at 1:17 am
red landscape
when i close my eyes
green hills
August 28th, 2017 at 6:08 am
new planet
a long wait before
the flag ripples
August 30th, 2017 at 11:34 am
new planet
long wait before
the flag ripples
August 28th, 2017 at 5:56 pm
new world . . .
following in our ancestors'
carbon footprints
August 29th, 2017 at 3:28 am
horizon from the edge of earth due north
August 29th, 2017 at 5:53 am
red sands and none
is here to say
how far away
the Earth is
August 29th, 2017 at 7:50 am
qi
through
me
earth
becomes
sky
August 29th, 2017 at 7:52 am
horizon
over the edge a dream
sets sail
August 29th, 2017 at 8:05 am
changing its landing place…
a stone's rolling
— summer dream
Ken Sawitri
August 29th, 2017 at 12:04 pm
new home
where will I plant
a garden
August 29th, 2017 at 3:07 pm
Red Rover, Red Rover,
hang tough Curiosity
until we come over
August 30th, 2017 at 9:32 pm
landscape
like the human heart
secrets dwelling
within shadow and stone
August 31st, 2017 at 11:51 am
staring back from the Oort cloud abyssal smoker’s shrimp
September 2nd, 2017 at 9:13 pm
I wish you could see
how the sun sets from up here
tell mom I miss her
September 2nd, 2017 at 9:25 pm
Nothing but red dust
on Mars, or is it just me
looking into your eyes
September 3rd, 2017 at 7:30 am
Red everywhere
up to the horizon
the force of passion
September 3rd, 2017 at 4:16 pm
let some good drift in
to us from our universe –
be present here now
September 5th, 2017 at 5:30 pm
Sand dunes
Brighten high on sunset
Nothing on earth to control.
September 6th, 2017 at 7:33 pm
red raw planet—
anorexic haiku
litter the ground
September 7th, 2017 at 6:32 am
Orpheus' red eyes
when he turned
to reach for Eurydice
September 7th, 2017 at 7:24 pm
climbing up the Martian horizon a red ant
September 14th, 2017 at 5:37 am
every sunrise
she thinks of earth
and we listen
September 20th, 2017 at 7:33 pm
even the rover
tires of wandering
this way or that,
a film of red dust
in its eyes
September 20th, 2017 at 7:34 pm
people dreamt of walking
in this dust world—
had they only known
what it is to live forever
in a single shade of red
September 20th, 2017 at 7:35 pm
longing for sky blue
and azure seas,
I wrap myself in red
dust so fine it lingers
deep inside me
September 20th, 2017 at 7:36 pm
tread gently
wherever it is
you are going –
counting days and nights
we make our way home
September 20th, 2017 at 7:37 pm
I always knew
I’d follow wherever
you wandered –
the taste of fine red dust
lingers in our kisses
September 21st, 2017 at 4:34 am
as if learnings
not enough…
to the god of war
September 22nd, 2017 at 12:34 am
so much emptiness not knowing where to start
September 25th, 2017 at 10:01 am
sandy oceans
ruby rust
rush of emotions
below stardust
October 30th, 2017 at 4:54 am
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