Archives

Pause

Feb26

My father died last week.

I have been and will continue to write a cycle of poems about my family. 

However, please allow me a bit of time to pause and reflect.

Thanks so much for your support and understanding.

Audrey

(aka Poetweetry)

X-ploration?

Oct27

The Space X Falcon 9 with Dragon capsule launches to International Space Station from the Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 7, 2012 Photo: NASA

 
FOR COMMERCIAL SPACE PIONEERS:
 

Daredevils breathe fire

Loop-the-loop

Around the world

in 90 minutes

Wing walkers watch warily

Will they storm the barn?

Or buy the farm?

Tweeted on Saturday, October 27, 2012 at 3:17 pm CT

©2012 by Audrey Schwartz Rivers and Poetweetry

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Sea of Tranquility

Sep13

Apollo 11 Cmdr Neil Armstrong after Moon walk
NASA photo

Remembering Neil Armstrong:
RIP in your beloved ocean 
 

Enough rock&dust shrines

Leave no deified relics

tomb photo ops

star dancing

Stay distant as Luna

Harbor in tranquil seas

of primordial dawn

 

 

Tweeted on Thursday September 13, 2012 at 11:28 a.m. CDT

following National Memorial Service

©2012 by Audrey Schwartz Rivers and Poetweetry

Neil Armstrong: In Memorium

Sep4

On July 20, 1969, I held tightly to a stuffed animal and my breath as I listened to the “30 minutes of terror” as a tiny space ship 250,000 miles away from my Iowa home descended toward the Moon’s surface. 

Humans ventured to new lands throughout civilization. Exploration pulsated in our species’ DNA. We sought out new lands both for adventure and for their economic riches. Many people died in the attempts. Discoverers too often became conquerors, harbingers of hate, disease and genocide. We wasted Nature, resources and the barbaric “Other.” 

Humans looked up to the stars. At first, we placed ourselves in the center of the heavens, only one step below our so-called Creator. Those researchers like Galileo who questioned such assumptions were vilified (as are many scientists today). However, Earth and its ally Gravity blocked any attempts to escape from its grip.

But on that day, more than 40 years ago, in a den in Iowa, I gazed at a flickering black-and-white TV screen as humans surmounted Mother Nature, escaped physics’ anchor and sailed toward a oceanless New World. Humans left Earth’s influence twice before (Apollo 8 and 10) and orbited her many times previously. With less than 30 seconds of fuel left, a cool, confident, relatively calm Neil Armstrong landed his ship Eagle on the soft dust of the Moon. Earth and all her inhabitants watched in wonder.

Neil Armstrong on Moon reflected in Buzz Aldrin’s visor
NASA photograph
Artist rendering ©2012 by Audrey S. Rivers

Neil Armstrong (and his crew mates Edwin Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins) contradicted the Columbuses of old.  They came in peace for all humanity. While they unfurled the American flag in less than firm lunar soil, they also placed flags from every United States and foreign sovereignty. They collected samples of another celestial body, not as plunder but to unlock secrets of millennia and share with scientists Earthwide. 

After their fiery return to Earth, the explorers spent three weeks in quarantine least the unseen aliens we always fear somehow trespassed. The trio must have contemplated the steps they took beyond what past civilizations could ever have dreamt. Surely, they surmised, humans, inspired by their success, by the wonder of the deed, by our exploration genes, would continue research expeditions to Luna. Why, nothing, besides lack of will and wonder, could even stop humans from walking across the closet planet so steeped in mystery and myth — Mars.

Nothing, but a lack of will and wonder….

Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon inspired both my sister and me to dream of working for human spaceflight. We both accomplished our goals, — she as a Space Shuttle Mission Controller; I as a planner and public affairs officer at the NASA Johnson Space Center.

When Neil Armstrong passed away on August 25, I felt despondent. Not only did we not lived up to his boldness, we confined our country only to Earth orbit and, at least for the short term, with the USA lacking even its own transport there. When the First Man on the Moon died, he received less recognition in the new 24/7 social network, cable news media than did pop star Michael Jackson’s demise. Even one major TV network news website announced “First Man on the Moon, Astronaut Neil YOUNG….”, confusing the pop-folk singer with the astronaut. The Twitter generation often referred to “Lance” rather than “Neil” in their Armstrong posts.

Neil Armstrong was a true hero, both as an astronaut and man. He was the “test pilot’s test pilot” and survived many never-fatal disasters with focus and confident calm. While other astronauts exploited their fame for fortune, Neil Armstrong taught at a university (for professor wages) and donated many space-related proceeds to charity. He inconspicuously lived for many years on a farm near Lebanon, Ohio. He had two sons. He lost one daughter to brain cancer as a toddler. He preferred the attention of young people to that of presidents and celebrities.

In memory of Neil Armstrong, I posted two poems I wrote for him many years ago. Please link here for them:

July 20, 1999

Poem For A Friend Who Has Walked On The Moon

And next time you catch a glimpse of the Moon at night (or during the day), please give it a wink to remember its first human visitor.

Audrey

We Should Have Seen It Coming

Aug6

A Poem for the people of Aurora, Colorado —

Bullets cut Superman’s cape

Fly, break neck

Joker poisons self

No baggy tights

double entendre

or Kittlady hiss

Bat signal black

@ midnite

 

 

 

Tweeted Monday, July 23, 2012 at 9:09 p.m. CDT

© 2012 by Audrey S. Rivers and Poetweetry

Euthanasia #2

May17

For  Min —

You didn’t go gently

I sanctified love 4 suffering

and peace 4 pain.

But U were not ready

2 give away UR last most vital life.

& I am not God


Tweeted:  May 17, 2010 at 10:40 p.m.
© 2010 by Poetweetry

Death Mask

Nov13

In Memory of Joyce

Mouth agape

w/spectral howl?

“Hellalujah’ of salvation?

A penitent “NO!”

Or the final redeeming

Exit for the soul?


Tweeted: October 26, 2009  9:345 pm CT
© 2009 by Poetweetry  All rights reserves