PAD Day 17: Spaceship Earth

 Today's prompts from Write Better Poetry and NaPoWriMo: (1) Write an "ambiguity" poem, and (2) "write a poem in which you respond to a favorite poem by another poet."

Today I chose to respond to a recent poem by one of my favorite poets (and people), my friend Jane Hirshfield. This a new poem that appeared in "Poem of the Day" on Poets.org in March. Jane is a very passionate citizen of the planet, and this poem reflects both her concerns and her hopes for its future, ending with a kind of benediction or prayer.

My poem is not so much a "response" as perhaps an elaboration on, or interpretation of, her sentiments in her poem. Her language is so beautfully lyrical, while mine is a bit more didactic. I also try to explain the concept of "kalpa" referenced in her poem. It exists in both Hinduism and Buddhism. (Jane, as you may know, has been a student of Zen Buddhism.) As far as the "ambiguity" prompt, my message is pretty unambiguous, but perhaps my ending is not. Will it be merciful death or merciful survival? (Oh, and the title is from a phrase coined by philosopher Frank White, referring to the feeling that astronauts get when viewing the Earth from space.)

Overview Effect

 

“Trust us, you look amazing, you look beautiful….”

—     Victor Glover, Artemis II crew

 

Zoom out with a lens and a spaceship

and find our other spaceship, the round blue one

surrounded by a void as it hurtles around the sun.

 

All the cliches come out—no borders in space,

and so on—but the feeling is real.

Sometimes we need to pull away to look closely,

and reflect on who we are on this rock,

who we could be, and what we can do as a species

now that the walls of Paradise have come down.

 

The Hindus say a kalpa, the time between creation

and destruction of the world, is four and a half billion years.

That’s how old our planet is.

 

There is no room for complacency.

We need to act, to do what we can now,

before our future spins into darkness.

 

But we also need to pray that our children

and grandchildren will survive what we have left them,

and that if there is a Higher Power, it will be merciful.

[Pardon the wide line spacing - I had some formatting issues with the blog. And here is the now-famous photo of Earth from the Artemis II mission.]