International Astropoetic Dialogues (5)

2002 - The Palindrome Year

by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe and Steve Sneyd

Andrei Dorian Gheorghe:

2002…
The Earth and its
new revolution movement—
around the Sun,
the same emperor
for new hopes.

“How many revolutions
did you realize?”
the Earth is asked by
space merchants
of materialistic dimension.

But I ask myself
how the Earth can
simultaneously carry
different seasons
in two hemispheres.

And I measure its value
in the burden
of so many dreams…

Steve Sneyd:

restless in their sleep
those who count forward
from lost pasts
those who count backward
from unfound futures
meet unknowing presently
how present’s presence
cannot be caught
any more than earth can be
stopped in its endless turns
always out of next-then into then-lost
and gasp awake with eyes
as wide as stars.

Andrei Dorian Gheorghe:

Yes, heavenly bodies…
The Moon and Jupiter
in conjunction.
A star, V 838 Monocerotis,
growing its magnitude.
Comet Ikeya-Zhang
swimming in heights…
Insignificant things for
the tridimensional universe,
but fascinating events for
they who have eyes
and telescopes
to watch our bidimensional sky,
because we live on Earth,
between poetry and money,
between harmony and terrorism,
between love and death,
desperate on every level,
even if the Vernal Equinox
and the Easter
call us
to believe in the renaissance,
eclipses and conjunctions
show us
the troubles are transient,
and the Christmas
enlightens yearly
our endeavours.

We live on Earth,
where sporadic meteors
teach us
to respect any chance,
Perseid meteors
tell us
about rules of beauty,
and Leonid meteors
still announce us
the holidays are rare.

We live on Earth,
free to think of stars
and to believe in their Creator,
but prisoners
in the atmosphere,
as fishes are prisoners
in the sea,
as planets are prisoners
in the solar gravity,
as stars are prisoners
in the void.

Copyright © 2005, Andrei Dorian Gheorghe and Steve Sneyd

Copyright © 2005, Calin Niculae

Andrei Dorian Gheorghe is the founder and director of the Cosmopoetry Festival of the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy-SARM. He is the editor of over 30 slim English anthologies of Romanian and international astropoetry, and is the author of original astropoetry performances presented at the International Meteor Organization Conferences 1997-2004, the Leonid MAC Workshop of NASA (Tel Aviv, 2000), and the European Convention of Science Fiction - Romania 2001. In 2003, he initiated the Meteor Contemporary Poetry Project for the IMO. More of this poet's work may be found in the SARM Golden Astropoetic Gallery.

Steve Sneyd is a British poet and historian of speculative poetry, who leads Hilltop Press and edits Data Dump- a newsletter of genre (SF, F, H, DF) poetry. Laureate of Peterson Trophy in 1996 and nominated five times for Rhysling SF Poetry Award, he published poems in over 1000 magazines and anthologies around the world.