We send robots to roam
neighbouring planets and moons
decades in the dark
searching, sensing, tasting
looking for life traces
Could it be Enceladus
where molecules spurt from
hidden ocean-slush
or indeed Mars, so dry
so near, so tantalising?
Will they succeed before
we destroy our lives
here on precious blue green Earth?
Before there is no one
to receive the news?
Copyright © 2020 Kim Whysall-Hammond
In deep time when the air was fat with moisture and warmth
you soared in low gravity, swooped over and along deep Marineris
scrabbled amongst rust red rocks, seeking the treasure of tasty morsels.
Then, as the air fizzed away to trail behind your little planets orbit
and the planetary heart chilled to immobility
so you chilled and slowed.
Settling down to a hibernation, waiting the warmth of a spring
that has never come.
Blanketed by wind borne dust you have been slumbering
in your crater nest.
Now those selfsame winds have scoured away your cover
revealing your raised scales.
Massive glider, hidden dragon.
Copyright © 2018 Kim Whysall-Hammond
(Thank you Nesa, for the idea!)
Bunge Crater Dunes — Fans and ribbons of dark sand dunes creep across the floor of Bunge Crater in response to winds blowing from the direction at the top of the picture. The frame is about 14 kilometers (9 miles) wide. This image was taken in January 2006 by the Thermal Emission Imaging System instrument on NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter and posted in a special December 2010 set marking the occasion of Odyssey becoming the longest-working Mars spacecraft in history. The pictured location on Mars is 33.8 degrees south latitude, 311.4 degrees east longitude. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University
We are a brief bloom
On the fragile skin
Of a molten body
Encircling a massive furnace
We are a blossoming of sentience
With encrusted technologies
Craving wonder, hoping for company
Seeking knowledge and excitement
We truly are stardust
Our bodies built from atoms
Forged in successive stellar explosions
We crave the glories of the Universe
We are Human
Copyright © 2016 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Re-blogged from last year
In deep time when the air was fat with moisture and warmth
you soared in low gravity, swooped over and along deep Marineris
scrabbled amongst rust red rocks, seeking the treasure of tasty morsels.
Then, as the air fizzed away to trail behind your little planets orbit
and the planetary heart chilled to immobility
so you chilled and slowed.
Settling down to a hibernation, waiting the warmth of a spring
that has never come.
Blanketed by wind borne dust you have been slumbering
in your crater nest.
Now those selfsame winds have scoured away your cover
revealing your raised scales.
Massive glider, hidden dragon.
Copyright © 2018 Kim Whysall-Hammond
(Thank you Nesa, for the idea!)
Bunge Crater Dunes — Fans and ribbons of dark sand dunes creep across the floor of Bunge Crater in response to winds blowing from the direction at the top of the picture. The frame is about 14 kilometers (9 miles) wide. This image was taken in January 2006 by the Thermal Emission Imaging System instrument on NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter and posted in a special December 2010 set marking the occasion of Odyssey becoming the longest-working Mars spacecraft in history. The pictured location on Mars is 33.8 degrees south latitude, 311.4 degrees east longitude. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University
And we stand upon this globe
Asking of the Universe
What?
Recognition?
Salvation?
Whatever you please
In it’s glory
(Shown by our ingenuity and craft
As we build orbital telescopes)
The Universe does not need us
Unless as an observer
Are we here simply to watch?
Look up, look up
Glory awaits
Copyright © 2017 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Another Monday, another watercolour. Here’s an Apollo Astronaut:
Copyright © 2017 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Infall
Protons
Particles
Masses
Bathed
Photons
Neutrinos
Light is lifegiver and deathbringer
The open sky pretends to shield
But cannot fully
The vagaries of the universe
Plague our houses, peck out our DNA
Ozone and magnetosphere have allowed us to live
To evolve and think
Think ourselves safe
Knowledge is perhaps power
But it reveals destiny
Infalling rock
Or the next local supernova
And we are gone
Copyright © 2017 Kim Whysall-Hammond
We are a brief bloom
On the fragile skin
Of a molten body
Encircling a massive furnace
We are a blossoming of sentience
With encrusted technologies
Craving wonder, hoping for company
Seeking knowledge and excitement
We truly are stardust
Our bodies built from atoms
Forged in successive stellar explosions
We crave the glories of the Universe
We are Human
Copyright © 2016 Kim Whysall-Hammond
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160510.html
Heart and soul
Something seems to have punched holes in the sky
Ringed with burning hydrogen, glowing against the dark
So we can peer through to blues, brighter stars
A sparkling alternate perhaps
Where life is sweet, death is no robber
All is bathed in glorious light
But look again, these apparent peep-holes
Are no miniatures, they are huge
Light takes hundreds of years to cross them
And millennia to arrive here with this picture
Celestial chrysanthemums colouring the sky
Tempting me to fantasy
Copyright © 2016 Kim Whysall-Hammond
The Cheesesellers Wife 