“The Trench”

Something a little bit different today, and a crossover from one of my other blogs, “The ‘Verse”, my astro-poetry website. The thumbnail below links to a posterised version of the poem, but you can find a simpler text version here…

I hope you enjoy the poem, but poetry is a very personal thing so it’s okay if you don’t. And I know some people think it’s wrong or even stoopid to antrhomorpho… humanise machines like Phoenix and the Mars rovers, but I don’t care to be honest. I think these amazing machines have changed our lives in the same way that real people can, so deserve a bit more respect – and gratitude – than they get. And having spent a couple of hours in the company of some of the Mars Exploration Rover team last night (hi Sharon, Scott and Andy!) I know how attached to their rovers they are too, so now I feel totally comfortable with talking about a rover or a lander as if it was alive. In many ways they are, but the most important way is that they are alive inside us, in here, and we care for them. Which is why I write this poetry. So, hope you enjoy it. If you do, take a look at some of the other poems on my poetry blog. If you don’t, no problem. Just enjoy the pretty pictures 🙂

~ by phoenixpics on September 17, 2008.