Tuesday, named in most Latin languages after the god Mars (mardi, martes, martedì), an appropriate day for a quick blog post about the red, red planet of the same name.
NASA are currently inviting members of the public to submit messages to planet Mars in haiku form, for a DVD that will be carried aboard the Maven spacecraft, launching towards the end of the year. The deadline for submissions is 1st July; public online voting will then decide which three haiku messages will be burned onto the DVD.
It’s doubtful the selected messages will be read by any Martians, not least because the Maven will remain in orbit around Mars, studying its upper atmosphere. Its mission is to attempt to determine what caused the planet’s water to be lost to space, thus rendering the climate inhospitable to life. Indeed, as Stephanie Renfrow of the MAVEN Education and Public Outreach program makes clear, the main objective of their Going to Mars haiku campaign is to raise human awareness of the Mars exploration project, and moreover, to offer people worldwide “a way to make a personal connection to space, space exploration, and science in general“.
Following on from Chris Hadfield’s breathtaking (and often highly poetic) photo feed, educational videos and heartwarming Space Oddity tribute from the ISS (which I look forward to blogging about in detail, in conjunction with my Atlas project), the haiku competition seems another great way to engage everyday citizens and villagers via social media, with two important differences. Firstly, it calls for a more open and direct involvement on the part of the individual, via the challenge of writing and (self-)expression. Secondly, the haiku campaign is less susceptible to a journalists’ injection of sensationalism – when Hadfield returned to Earth, commercial media unfortunately proved to be a lot more interested in his newly acquired ‘superstar’ status than in what I believe were the true objectives and success of his mission: not only to continue awakening our planetary consciousness by sharing his experience of the overview effect, but to make the planetary ‘cool’ again, less ‘nerdy’, and more accessible to greater numbers of people.
The deadline for the submission of haikus for Mars is almost a month away, so there’s plenty of time to explore and mull over haiku possibilities before logging onto the Maven site and uploading our entries. My more ‘pointed’ haikus tend to come either very spontaneously – leaping out in a flash from the subconscious –, or slowly and patiently, after taking the time to carve and mould (that is, to utterly simplify) an initial, insatisfactory version. The five haiku below should be considered mere starting points, which I hope to fine-tune progressively over the next few weeks.
There are of course many possible angles worth exploring. Perhaps the most obvious one is the message of goodwill:
Blue Earth to red Mars:
we come in peace, children of
the same orange star.
This haiku says nothing new, but it could be developed somehow. Speaking of peace, it would be good to bring out a clearer (yet subtle) contrast with Mars’ symbolism as god of war. Who are we to baptise the planet with that name, if it is us who invented borders, missiles, and the atom bomb?
Dear people of Mars:
are our borders visible
in your evening sky?
Through the mushroom cloud,
planet Mars looks on in awe
and ponders its name.
Another option, in reference to Maven‘s investigative mission, would be to ‘adapt’ Matsuo Bashō’s classical frog haiku:
Ancient Mars streambed,
a frog jumps in,
water-sound?
And as we mentioned Space Oddity (thanks to Hadfield, I’m seriously hooked to David Bowie’s original version these days), a reference to Bowie’s deceptively simple lyrics:
Ground control to Mars:
any sign of Major Tom
spinning in tin can?
Ultimately, given that the three haikus to be sent into Martian orbit will be chosen by online voting, it’s likely that humour will attract the most votes. Searching around the internet for examples of Mars-related haikus, I came across this little gem by Laura of the blog Unlikely Explanations:
Two hundred million
miles from home. Did I forget
to turn off the stove?
I would probably vote for this one myself, for it pokes fun at our uncanny fallibility: homo sapiens sapiens may be intelligent enough to reach Mars, and yet we remain capable of the silliest and most dangerous mistakes.
I’ll finish off with a ‘space haiku’ by one of my favourite contemporary poets, Nikola Madžirov. Taken from the book A new wave of Macedonian haiku (Struga, 2011):
Falling stars tonight.
I made a wish: let them
fall on something soft.
UPDATE 15/7/13 – Voting now open:
antoine cassar 
thank you for this post. Maybe I’ll send few haikus too. Good luck with yours. 🙂
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red planet…
I trace your name
on the stars
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Mars be wary
We come in peace as brothers
Cain and Abel
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There should be a haiku with a Star Wars/Star Trek/Doctor Who joke in there.
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venimos de la evolucion del universo de la cual sois parte
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Hahaha! Wow… writing an ode to a Mars. I haven’t written a haiku since the early 90’s. Guess I could start up again with a little planetary inspiration.
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This is the best:
Ground control to Mars:
any sign of Major Tom
spinning in tin can?
Follow up:
Mars to Ground Control:
Major Tom has been here long
Dying his hair red
I suck at this.
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@sarabressler:
Thanks for the follow-up. Let’s modify it a little, to give a nostalgic mirror-effect:
Mars to Ground Control:
Major Tom has been here long
staring back at Earth
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Love your post. Here’s my three lines…
so far from here
we find ourselves
always home
Been wonderful to read fellow bloggers freshly-pressed on this day – there are interesting threads that run through the work… Be well~
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Agree with you and and this people comment :bussokuseki !!
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I love all of these (and thanks for mentioning mine). I think my favorite is the one with the mushroom cloud.
On a lighter note, MAVEN wants a 5-7-5 syllable count, so here’s a variation on your frog adaptation:
Ancient Mars streambed,
Shiny metal frog jumps in,
A splash, or a crunch?
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how about a little bit of wabi-sabi?
火星とは
ただの煌めき
いざさらば
arid and red-hot
here, just one more fading star
goodnight, my sweet mars
by the way, love your blog. i need to start reading more.of your stuff, i’ve just been a little swamped lately.
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Intriguing.
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Reblogged this on Queen City Addendum.
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Reblogged this on tlnokia.
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colonizing mars would be the next goal for NASA. 😛
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Thanks for posting this. keep posting.
http://www.hosting1.in
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Love the “Two hundred million…” haiku. Poetry as truth.
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Reblogged this on bermanj1forchange and commented:
I really wish instead of saying, “inhospitable to life,” instead we’d say, “to life as we currently define it.”
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Once it had water
Now dried up like a red prune
Was the water red?
Love your haikus. Thanks for subscribing to my blog.
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Reblogged this on Elena Falletti.
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Good haiku, Sandra!
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Mars truly is the kind of place that deserves its own Haiku.
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Voting now open:
http://lasp.colorado.edu/maven/goingtomars/entry/?27155
http://lasp.colorado.edu/maven/goingtomars/entry/?27157
http://lasp.colorado.edu/maven/goingtomars/entry/?27158
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