The Moon

My Poem “Space Poets”

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 
The crew of the Artemis II mission to the Moon
captivated and inspired a whole new generation
of scientists, engineers, astronauts,
explorers, artists, and storytellers
from the moment that they left the pull of Earth’s gravity
and they began their journey to our natural satellite
for the first time in over 50 years
and gave humanity the collective opportunity
to experience the return to somewhere we know,
to somewhere that has always been
a constant in our lives,
and somewhere that will one day become
humanity’s first interstellar outpost,
beacon, workplace, and home…
for ten days, we the people of Earth
stopped focusing on the chaos and the turmoil
of the conflicts being fought around the world
and we lifted our eyes and followed every step of the way
of the 685,000 mile round trip of a crew of four
sojourners as they traveled farther than
any humans have ever traveled before
and they got to witness the sights of
the dark side of the Moon
that we do not get to see here on Earth -
not to mention the sight of Earth rising
over the horizon of the Moon,
and a spectacular solar eclipse -
and they were able to share what they saw
with those of us back on Earth
in the form of photographs that will continue
to capture and captivate the imagination
of people for years to come…
NASA Commander Reid Wiseman,
NASA pilot Victor Glover,
NASA mission specialist Christina Koch,
and Canadian Space Agency astronaut
and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen
maintained almost continuous contact with Earth
for almost the entirety of their journey to the Moon,
and as they reached farther and farther away
from this lifeboat of a planet that we all call home
they gave us all so much insight and inspiration
about who they are and who we all are as a people;
because what that crew embodied
every moment of their mission
was what makes humanity so singular, so unique,
so special, and so extraordinary,
and what we can all achieve if we work together
and never give up on the power of our dreams
and our exceptional ability to make
leaps into the unknown for the betterment of all of humanity…
the mission of Artemis II and its phenomenal crew
will never be forgotten by those who watched them and followed the story of their space adventure
every step of the way and every hour of every day
by those who wanted them to do
what they set out to do:
to return humanity to the moon
and invite future generations of astronauts
to follow their example and one day
eclipse their accomplishments
and once again return humanity
to the surface of the Moon
and use it as a staging ground
for a future mission to the planet Mars…
the crew of Artemis II have now
successfully returned to Earth
and are now sharing their experiences
and their bond with one another with the entire world
as they attempt to put into words
how their mission and their journey
has changed them and their relationship
with Earth and all of humanity;
but one thing they should be sure about
is that to many of those of us who watched them,
and who listened intently to every word they said,
they are more than a team of astronauts;
they are more than a crew of voyagers;
they are the heart and the soul of what makes
humanity capable of doing extraordinary things;
and, in my opinion, what the crew of Artemis II
shared with us here on Earth was nothing short of poetry
and, to me, they are nothing short of poets.

A Poem A Day #301: Luna Fortuna

Mark Hastings Podcast, Poetry , , , , , , , , , ,
“Luna Fortuna” by Mark Hastings was taken from Mark’s poetry collection ‘The Eternal Boy’ which was published in 2015 by Zeloo Media. Check out more of Mark’s poetry online @ http://MarkThePoet.Me – all poems © Mark Hastings ● Buy Me a coffee @ https://www.buymeacoffee.com/MarkThePoet

My Poem “Apollo XI”

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Fifty years ago today,
a man took one small step,
one giant leap for all mankind,
and imprinted the first footprints
of exploration of The Moon,
while capturing the attention
of every nation of planet Earth
and inspiring the imagination
of an entire generation.

The 20th of July, 1969,
was the tip of an arrow,
the culmination of an idea,
the realization of a dream,
the answer to a call to rise above
our human divisiveness
and bring people together
to achieve something truly astounding
and incredible by working together
for a common purpose
to give humanity a vision
of a prosperous future
in which everybody could live
in peace with one another.

Fifty years ago,
three astronauts of NASA,
three men of planet Earth,
three space adventurers,
three space explorers,
three dreamers escaped this planet’s
gravity and journeyed across
the expanse of space
and arrived in orbit of The Moon…
fifty years ago, Michael Collins,
Buzz Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong
did what nobody before them
had ever done before,
and with the entire world watching
them intently, and yet from afar,
they redefined who we are,
who we should be,
what we should be doing,
and what we should never stop striving for.

The human race is at its best
when we are all thinking
about what is best for everybody,
when we are reaching for the stars
and believing that things
can and will get better for all
if we all choose to be
who we were born to be:
a people with a shared destiny
who need one another to
live to our full potential,
so that the next generations
can one day look back
and think well upon the choices
that were made to realize
the never-ending dream
of imagination, ingenuity,
and interstellar enlightenment
beyond those first imagined
by the dreamers, the scientists,
the engineers, the families,
and the astronauts
that breathed life into the missions
to put the first men on The Moon –
which came to fruition
with the success of Apollo 11,
when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
made history when they walked on The Moon
and then triumphantly returned to Earth.