American Poet and Unofficial NASA Poet Laureate, James Ph. Kotsybar, with Jean-Patrick Chaminade, President of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA). As I look back on my experience, the best part about my week in Occitanie, was being introduced to hundreds of scientists and scholars as an American poet and not hearing, “So, […]
Read more "Bard Of Mars Visits The Pink City"I have to ask for help to make this happen. Bard Of Mars At “La Ville Rose” Your donation will allow me to present my poetry in person to a scientifically inclined audience of five thousand international guests. I hope to affirm for them that science and poetry are not in opposition, but benefit by […]
Read more "Too Good An Opportunity To Miss"PAYLOAD SPECIALIST for Christa McAuliffe McAulliffe, lone civilian on doomed flight, who staked her life on those whom she believed would bring her fame that she could use to teach when she returned to Earth, shall be long grieved. For something sadly simple as a seal the engines catastrophically failed. Let’s not point fault, but rather […]
Read more "PAYLOAD SPECIALIST"In 1977, a recording of “Liu Shui” (流水; Stream), as performed by Guan, was chosen to be included in the Voyager Golden Record, a gold-plated LP recording containing music from around the world, which was sent into outer space by NASA on the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft. It is the longest excerpt included on the disc (lasting seven minutes and […]
Read more "TOPPING THE STAR CHARTS"OUMUAMUA (1I/2017U1) Dagger of Death Oumuamua, dagger from space, is flung at its target end over end – too fast for any rocket to outpace. Earth, spun within the Sun’s disc, can’t defend against this object just recently spied (though it is the size of a football field) – a blade ten times as […]
Read more "OUMUAMUA, DAGGER OF DEATH"FATED NEBULAE Like supernovae artists, clouds disperse behemoth art, as stars annihilate. “Sombrero,” “Crab” and “Horsehead” populate the gallery of our known universe. There’s “Eagle” and “Pillars Of Creation,” There’s “Ant,” “Tarantula” and “Pelican.” There’s even one called “Big Running Chicken.” One slightly resembles our great nation. These interstellar Rorschach tests reveal the shapes […]
Read more "FATED NEBULAE"While not included in Bard Of Mars, this is a limerick tribute to Professor Sara Seager of MIT, who kindly authored the foreword to the book. She also was inspiration for the haiku above and below. Sara Seager is a planetary scientist and astrophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she is a Professor […]
Read more "Seager, Ye Shall Find"“I do not see how a man can work on the frontiers of physics and write poetry at the same time. They are in opposition.”
– Paul Dirac to Robert Oppenheimer
“You forgot that science has evolved from poetry, and failed to see that a change of times might beneficently reunite the two as friends, at a higher level and to mutual advantage.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Happy 40th Anniversary to Voyagers 1 & 2! Almost out of the solar system, traveling faster than anything else man has ever built, soon (in an astronomical sense) you will announce our presence to the rest of the intelligent universe (if it exists). You are our first spacecraft unable to ask, “Are we there yet?” […]
Read more "Topping The Star Charts"TOURIST TRANSPORT When people come to a poem (through their own free will), they are prepared to step off familiar shores, ferried by the poet gondolier. The vessel must be yare and in keeping with the scene, ideally classical in design – without intruding technology – and with simple lines. The ride […]
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BARD OF MARS 