Poets Are From Earth, Haiku Go To Mars

So NASA emailed me to say my haiku had arrived on Mars…

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There’s a sentence you don’t read (or write) every day.  And what’s great is, it’s true!

Truth is relative, of course.  NASA did email, as they do every day; I’m subscribed to their website.

I did write a haiku, however, and it did go to Mars…along with thousands of others submitted to their competition.  NASA put all of the entries on to a DVD in case the Little Green Men like Japanese poetry.

According to the website:

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft successfully entered Mars’ orbit at 10:24 p.m. EDT Sunday, Sept. 21, where it now will prepare to study the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere as never done before. MAVEN is the first spacecraft dedicated to exploring the tenuous upper atmosphere of Mars.

It doesn’t say anything about my haiku but I guess they’re kind of busy with all the, like, sciency stuff and that.  Go figure.

But hey – I can say with absolute truth: my writing is out of this world 🙂

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Timing Is Everything

Image via Wikipedia

Having informed you yesterday that this blog will no longer support poetry, what does the WordPress Prompter throw my way?

Write a haiku about something that drives you nuts.  Remember: 5, 7, 5. [syllables]

Okay, WordPress Prompter; you asked for it (though technically, what you’re asking for is a senryu; if you want us to do something, at least try and get the terminology right):

In Response To A WordPress Prompt

Dear WordPress prompter,
you drive me nuts.  You can do
better.  Have some guts.

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Just a reminder that I have a separate poetry blog now at I’m Not A Verse.  I have added a subscription facility today, so you can have an email to your inbox instead of having to search for me.

Go on!  You know you want to.

Annual Review

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The last day of the year seems like a good time to re-hash the last twelve months – not much point doing it next March, is there?  I won’t include links to previous posts because I don’t expect you to go and read them again; I’m just glad you showed up at all today.

On a personal level, we acquired a new dog and six fish (now, sadly, five fish).  I went on a back-to-work course; had a work placement and one interview but still no job.  I was in the audience for the first leaders’ debate and was given a new kitchen and bathroom by my landlord.  The whole of my downstairs and part of my upstairs has been re-decorated this year, and it’s all hidden by the Hub’s ever-growing mountain of crap.  I discovered I am two inches taller than I thought I was; and Glee.  I celebrated my 25th wedding anniversary; witnessed a police siege in my street; and won £100 in shopping vouchers.  The Hub’s CFS/ME got steadily worse and he was diagnosed with anaemia and restless leg syndrome, so I doubled my fun-poking efforts.  I became a pirate for a week; had several colds and infections and a wisdom tooth extraction; and still claimed to be as healthy as an ox.  Have you noticed that you never see oxen anymore?  Spud had three holidays – two courtesy of friends – and Tory Boy helped win the election (sort of) and saw the Pope’s back while interning in Westminster.

The general election threw up my favourite quote of the year:

Paddy Ashdown: 

The British people have spoken; now we just have to work out what they’ve said.

As far as the writing goes, I was published in several poetry ezines and two collections; was counted part of the Manchester blogging scene; and saw one of my poems turned into a piece of art work.  I took part in April’s NaPoWriMo and November’s Poetic Asides Poem A Day challenge; performed at Bramhall Hall with Manchester Camerata; and at Stockport Art Gallery with its vanishing audience.  I completed an excellent creative writing course at a local college and was a founder member of Stockport Art Gallery Writing Group.

My blog was given a makeover and I had three guest bloggers.  This blog is growing exponentially.  In March I was thrilled to reach the magic figure of 5000 hits; in the nine months since then I have had over 21,000 hits with the figure at this moment standing at 26,671.  I started a new blog for my South African poems and sometimes it gets as many as three readers a day. 

Not a bad year, overall.  Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to share it with me.

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The prompt for Big Tent was to write a list poem.  I was inspired to write a haiku by today outside:

A Stockport Winter

dull grey cold muddy
miserable the same as
a Stockport summer

Hee Hee Hee

Image via Wikipedia

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

To bring you down, here’s a haiku for Writer’s Island, where the theme is LAST REDWOOD: 

After Armageddon 

The last Redwood eyed
denuded earth; saddened, sighed,
‘Alas, I’m dead wood.’ 

   

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However, in the spirit of my blog’s name, here’s something to make you laugh: 

 

 

  

  

 

 

Those Who Can, Sleep

I’m tired. I didn’t get much sleep last night. I blame, well, everyone.

Tory Boy used an angle grinder to unlock his door; he said it was the key but I know a power tool when I hear one in the middle of the night as I’m just dropping off.

Spud did his thing of feeling ill at about two a.m. and standing over me until I woke up. It’s terrifying and one day he’s going to get a fist where he don’t want it because my barely-conscious mind will think he’s too big to be my baby and must be an intruder.

The Hub was the worst offender because not only did he collect Toby from our room to put him out for a wee, he also offered to stroke my hair to help me sleep once he had seen to the dogs, then took me at my word when I told him not to worry about it; he also left the hall light on so he could see not to fall over Molly in the dark (something we do a lot of). I can’t believe how selfish he is sometimes.

He should have more sympathy because he hasn’t slept properly himself, for several months. It got so bad that he finally agreed to see the doctor and it turns out he has something wrong with his sinuses that interrupts his breathing and wakes him up; and restless leg syndrome, which causes pain and wakes him up again. Or maybe it was just a cold and a bruised shin. I dozed off while he was telling me. He shouldn’t talk to me when I’m not interested; I can’t believe how selfish he is sometimes.

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This is for Haiku Heights; the prompt was festival:

Edinburgh Festival

A magical land:
my adult self rues what my
teen self did not find.

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I always wanted to go to the Edinburgh Festival and it is one of my very few regrets that I have never made it there. Or, being a glass half-full kind of girl, perhaps I should say it’s on my to do list of unfulfilled ambitions.

Tales From Mother Goose

I like geese.  We have geese at Alexandra Park and they will take bread from your hands and hiss if they think you are ignoring them.  I thought I’d share some interesting facts:

• they always fly in a ‘V’ formation; it gives them 71% more flying range (I wonder how scientists measured that?)
• all the geese in the flock go off on holiday together; no matter how weak or old they are, no-one is left behind; they fly at the back, where it’s easiest 
• if a bird becomes too weak to fly, a couple of the others will accompany it to land and stay with it until it dies  or recovers.  How wonderful is that?  here’s a haiku to celebrate:

Friendship 

Geese guard a stricken
comrade until it dies or
flies again – how neece.

• they mate till death do them part and might be widowed for years before choosing another mate
• they home, which reminds me that I’ve been meaning to tell you about the Hub’s Granddad Herbert, who raced pigeons as a hobby, carefully feeding and breeding and cherishing them and then, once their useful life was at an end, eating them

• each formation has a lead goose who sets the pace; when it tires, it falls back and another goose takes the lead
• they honk to encourage each other to keep going, a bit like the Hub’s wife when he’s tired of stroking her hair
• lost geese or those who’ve stayed behind to help a poorly pal are welcomed into passing formations as members of the family

•  they make great guard dogs (warning: this video contains excessive melodrama):

 

Oooo!

The June issue of Four And Twenty has come out and it has two of my poems in it.  If you have the time, check it out here.