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.
oh, no!
go back! I forgot
the phone charger!
that would be me!
The lonely robot
Sixty million miles away
Searching endlessly
Damn it
Red Planet
I love you
twin rows of staples
across her abdomen
the promise
of new life comes
at a price
I love your spin on Mars!
Just now getting "around" to saying thank you–appreciate your reading my work!
I love where you've gone with this tanka.
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…
Hmmmm, I like that idea. It would be an interesting prompt for a group of women poets. :)
red dirt tracks
swallowed by
the dark maw
of Mars
Cragged regolith hills
Wind-beaten into powder
Now soft red, red, red
This barren red
Will make for one
Casual conquest
endless opportunity
roving Mars alone
for now
Searching for signs of life you are the sign of life…
ever onward
seeking to find
ghosts of mars
tread tracks in red clay
suddenly Mars
doesn't seem so far away
roving Spirit died
but brother Opportunity
thirsts for more red dust
On the hilltop
Bradbury points
Burroughs smiles
Rover moves on
rover crosses
the waterless frontier
red sun and red sand
night beach, silver-white:
how many live below us
unseen? and above?
nature still red–
cold and dust
for teeth and claws
deserted trail
I walk till my shadow
disappears
I really like the passage of time suggested in this.
he scans
the empty landscape
lonely robot
alone on the path
all the meaning
i can't find
the scent of rain
birdsong stretches
as far as Mars
war moon
the flickering of humans
at birdsong
This reminds me of the planet of the apes, but much more complicated.
Mars, the war planet.
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
the stars dimming I adjust the astronaut in me
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!
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…
Voyager One
a pale blue dot grows fainter
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
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)
summer shadows
moonlight shifts the plains
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
Sounds good. Thanks!
martin
…read it. DOUBLE PLUS GOOD!
from tendrils of Enceladus spider’s silhouette
Thanks Martin!
total eclipse
a dust devil settles
in the umbra
sharkskin shoes
the whisper of nanobots
in his breath
gun-ship hues
the different spellings
in alphabet spaghetti
fifth kind encounter
humans replace crows
as an idiom of murder
winding sheet
the slow egress
of android Fred
candy shop
uncoiling a moon
in a fragile sky
dark and dreary
is anyone
home
just over the hill
more unanswered
questions
Mars rover
fueling
our curiosity
Distant
Still
Horizon
Still
Distant
seeking prime numbers?
what if Martians write haiku
in 5-7-5…?
their world so bleak
instead of primes
Martians visualize the lines
_____________
_____________________
_____________
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.
Mars too
waiting…
for life
Mars rovers
the science fiction
in all of us
red tracks in the sand
I hold my breath
the national inquirer?
digging-up dirt?
on Mars?
the empty landscape
the empty landscape
for miles ahead
infertility
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.
new road
red planet
also begins in dust
makes Bob Sharp happy
that we keep going forward
and don't look back
aimless land rover
scours the planets red sand
no wind covers its tracks
burnt sienna sand
baked into the landlay
the orbits' oven
.
the whisper-hiss
of solar energy
tracking Mars
.
Earth to Mars
different desert
same dearth
.
surveying space
a phantom agronomist
slaving
.
roving
for science sake
graffiti mars
virgin red plain
while home burns
new challenges
on the horizon
red dust
Mars rover the forever of our tread
no regrets
if I never go roving
this way again
route to Mars
the man's wisdom
of his sins
Endless dirt
not one damn Martian
cancel war
withered earth
I search for the ghost
of something
how peaceful
the planet of war
no-fly zone
adventure in my blood future generations
Agnes, you need to vote for yourself, to bump this up a few pages.
It is Good, woman!
Jan
Thanks Jan, maybe I can recycle it somewhere that accepts previous online un-edited presence.
finding fresh tracks
it didn't make…
not alone after all
Enroute to Mars
I take a devour
through the moon land
to keep my darling
smile for ever.
distant perspective
future horizon same as the red past
onward
new picture from mars
the mission engineer
grabs a burger
the children
want to go to Mars
climate change
inching forward
unsettled dust reveals
milestone
the first tracks
air, oceans, cities
dragged behind
home on Mars
why talk about dust?
unsettled dust
red planet scores a point
with human mind
now part of
the mythology
Mars rovers
cold and dark Mars
we did enough to live
in the dark
our friendship endures
even when we don't know
what to expect
red planet
piecing together its past
to shed light on our future
earthrise what we used to take for granted
Lovely.
lingering drought
the dowser points her rod
to the sky
golf course designer
sees the perfect spot
for the first tee
exploring the unknown
the path
out of loneliness
blue sunset
on a red planet
rover tracks
(published in Scifaikuest, Aug 2009, but couldn't resist posting it since it fits the photo)
tracks across the planet no flags
Mars welcomes humans
ready-made tracks
for war tankers
earthrise
so much to write about
home
earthrise
so much write about
home
Mars!
were we not together
before big bang?
a child’s play
connecting dots
next is Mars
lovers
a whole world
between them
on any planet's path
one step after another
born of fire, rose red
billions in displaced ash
double underlined
Exploring new possibilities each time
Infinite and endless is the landscape
late night drinks downhill all the way home
she glares
towards him
Venus vs. Mars
dementia
thoughts and words
drifting into darkness
EQUALS
=======
SEQUEL
scientists
sifting through data
collecting possibilities
another drought
she adds burnt sienna
to her palette
art and life . . .
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
the robot's gaze another world to imagine
alone on mars
hoping for the message
to shut me down
bottle trees on Mars
silicon most common
black loam humus not at all
growing bottle trees
no mars bars here
I'll have a
bloody mary
Oops, Diane not Diaen
no mars bars here
I'll have
a bloody mary
Mars’ barren landscape
uncontrolled climate change
on Earth
earthly pleasures
my monk’s mind
on Mars
tracks on Mars
my mythological mind
open to questions
on a dusty road
a rover seeks a life
she never knew
impermanence
the map i’m using
out of date
far from home
the broken colours
out of my dream
tracks in the dust
all my life
in plain view
hazy moons
new data arrives
on the martian spring
red planet hills
brick tracks on horizon
lead to life
does my butt look big
in this thin atmosphere
wonders Mars
who comes in fourth
blushing those crater cheeks
ha!
then again maybe it was the wind road to nowhere
a dust bowl once more déjà vu en rouge
Earth
one day
perhaps
if
mission to earth
exploring life
year 2117
out of touch
the slow passing
of seasons
the retired astronaut
asleep on his side —
above his shoulders
a smoke detector’s light
burns red
In front of me
looks like
a mount of Venus
hemoglobin
iron atoms
binding vertebrates
this taste for blood—
we are the real Gods of War
our own Earth, a casualty
the sun
lacking any warmth
at this distance
there's a whole world of people
between you and me
alien sky
i wait for
earthrise
from a path
to the pathless path …
autumn trek
wagon ho!
p u
a n
r i
a v
l e
l r
e s
l e
(I typed it with space between the words 'parallel' and 'universe,' like wagon tracks, but it didn't show up like that!)
eclipse over, we drive home —
each freeway viaduct
casting its shadow
ring eclipse
a dust devil darkens
the moon’s shadow
https://youtu.be/OyZoD7BRTtg
near the Martian rover a dust devil’s purr
red planet—
the distance a dream
has to travel
Territory earmarked
Possessiveness
Climbs new Martian heights ~
to news headlines
“man may live on Mars”
opened my eyes
from deep meditation
on leaving earthly pleasures
blackness gives to red
inspiration births life
welcome to Mars
tracks
line the sandbox
summer drought
a grain
this universal dust
we are
a grain
of universal dust
we are
one grain
of universal dust
we are
Mars rover
grasping
at rocks
one grain
the universal dust
we are
strange
yet familiar horizon
my ticket
to Mars includes an afterlife
with Ray Bradbury
looking back
missed
opportunity
from now on
the dust
always redder
on the other
side of the hill
.
summerheatafterglowinfadingtaillights
.
desert trail
I step deeper
into myself
red landscape
when i close my eyes
green hills
new planet
a long wait before
the flag ripples
new planet
long wait before
the flag ripples
new world . . .
following in our ancestors'
carbon footprints
horizon from the edge of earth due north
red sands and none
is here to say
how far away
the Earth is
qi
through
me
earth
becomes
sky
horizon
over the edge a dream
sets sail
changing its landing place…
a stone's rolling
— summer dream
Ken Sawitri
new home
where will I plant
a garden
Red Rover, Red Rover,
hang tough Curiosity
until we come over
landscape
like the human heart
secrets dwelling
within shadow and stone
staring back from the Oort cloud abyssal smoker’s shrimp
I wish you could see
how the sun sets from up here
tell mom I miss her
Nothing but red dust
on Mars, or is it just me
looking into your eyes
Red everywhere
up to the horizon
the force of passion
let some good drift in
to us from our universe –
be present here now
Sand dunes
Brighten high on sunset
Nothing on earth to control.
red raw planet—
anorexic haiku
litter the ground
Orpheus' red eyes
when he turned
to reach for Eurydice
climbing up the Martian horizon a red ant
every sunrise
she thinks of earth
and we listen
even the rover
tires of wandering
this way or that,
a film of red dust
in its eyes
people dreamt of walking
in this dust world—
had they only known
what it is to live forever
in a single shade of red
longing for sky blue
and azure seas,
I wrap myself in red
dust so fine it lingers
deep inside me
tread gently
wherever it is
you are going –
counting days and nights
we make our way home
I always knew
I’d follow wherever
you wandered –
the taste of fine red dust
lingers in our kisses
as if learnings
not enough…
to the god of war
so much emptiness not knowing where to start
sandy oceans
ruby rust
rush of emotions
below stardust
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