Tanka: We

earth-globe-planet-45208 — Photo: Pixabay http://www.pexels.com

When the earth was young
We were put in a garden
We had abundance
We messed it all up big time
We still live the aftermath

copyright Francis Barker 2019

Haiku: Asteroid

planet earth — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

It’s silly season
An asteroid is coming
but where would it land?

copyright Francis Barker 2019

Poem: Terrorform

brown and black crater — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

From the first day let us start to terraform Mars,
make oceans from melting ice caps

and rivers run red through the rusty soil.
Day two let’s release plankton into the sea,

let out vast shoals of fish to feed on them
and steely predators to feast on the fish.

Day three we’ll throw spores into the sparse air
and watch the forests grow, the trees

stretch high up the slopes of Olympus Mons.
Day four let’s release mammals, birds

and other fauna into the forests and fields,
to watch them gorge on the goodness

of the land, enjoy the clarity of the sky.
Then on day five we’ll take ourselves

to the former red planet, to become
the feared Martians we thought were there.

Day six let us wage glorious, total war
among ourselves, make the rivers run red

in the name of the god who named this place.
And day seven let us rest, exhausted by labour

and lust, to examine our new abomination
from the safety of space’s vacuum,

in orbit with Phobos and Demos
without fear or dread of another first day.

copyright Leofwine Tanner 2019 and 2011

Amerigo Vespucci – What’s in a Name?

Portrait_of_Amerigo_Vespucci — *By Officially unknown (poss. Cristofano dell’Altissimo) – Uffizi, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18157134*

We owe Italy quite a lot really, don’t we?

Pizza, pasta, risotto, fine wine, passion, flair, fashion style, not to mention the Romans (and yes, what did they ever do for us?) to name but a few. These are things our lives would be far less rich without.

Well, some say it was around this day in history, May 10 or 11, when someone else Italian set sail on a voyage to what we now term ‘the New World’, namely Amerigo Vespucci.

Born in Florence in 1454, Vespucci is famous for debunking Columbus’ notion that the West Indies and Brazil were in fact the other side of the world, actually the easternmost parts of Asia.

In other words, he envisioned the new discoveries as a completely new, separate landmass from Asia. Originally termed the New World, what the new continent lacked was a proper name. Step up Amerigo Vespucci once again, whose latinised Christian name reads as ‘Americus’.

It was only a small step from there to someone suggesting that this huge piece of earth should be called after him, but with a feminine ending – America – and why not? Are we still grateful to him and Italy?

PS. Of course, we know now that the Vikings founded what they termed ‘Vinland’ in what is now the north eastern seaboard of North America centuries before Columbus, but that’s another story…

Poem ‘Sea Wall’

Sea Wall

Stand and look from here,
you can see the earth’s curve,
a sea-levelled land
bereft of its mother.

Shells we have found
while the silt blew away,
powdered by droughts
and the pitiless wind.

Stand here with me
at the high spring tide—
you know the stark sea
will swell all over this again

When the earth was young We were put in a garden We had abundance We messed it all up big time We still live the aftermath

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It’s silly season An asteroid is coming but where would it land?

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From the first day let us start to terraform Mars, make oceans from melting ice caps

and rivers run red through the rusty soil. Day two let’s release plankton into the sea,

let out vast shoals of fish to feed on them and steely predators to feast on the fish.

Day three we’ll throw spores into the sparse air and watch the forests grow, the trees

stretch high up the slopes of Olympus Mons. Day four let’s release mammals, birds

and other fauna into the forests and fields, to watch them gorge on the goodness

of the land, enjoy the clarity of the sky. Then on day five we’ll take ourselves

to the former red planet, to become the feared Martians we thought were there.

Day six let us wage glorious, total war among ourselves, make the rivers run red

in the name of the god who named this place. And day seven let us rest, exhausted by labour

and lust, to examine our new abomination from the safety of space’s vacuum,

in orbit with Phobos and Demos without fear or dread of another first day.

Rate this:

Share this:

We owe Italy quite a lot really, don’t we?

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

When the earth was young
We were put in a garden
We had abundance
We messed it all up big time
We still live the aftermath

It’s silly season
An asteroid is coming
but where would it land?

From the first day let us start to terraform Mars,
make oceans from melting ice caps

and rivers run red through the rusty soil.
Day two let’s release plankton into the sea,

let out vast shoals of fish to feed on them
and steely predators to feast on the fish.

Day three we’ll throw spores into the sparse air
and watch the forests grow, the trees

stretch high up the slopes of Olympus Mons.
Day four let’s release mammals, birds

and other fauna into the forests and fields,
to watch them gorge on the goodness

of the land, enjoy the clarity of the sky.
Then on day five we’ll take ourselves

to the former red planet, to become
the feared Martians we thought were there.

Day six let us wage glorious, total war
among ourselves, make the rivers run red

in the name of the god who named this place.
And day seven let us rest, exhausted by labour

and lust, to examine our new abomination
from the safety of space’s vacuum,

in orbit with Phobos and Demos
without fear or dread of another first day.