AN ODE TO THE PLANETS

AN ODE TO THE PLANETS

Spherical and cosmic; I have longed to travel to your borders,

escaping into the eternity of time you represent.

Each of your names is embedded into memory -

childhood repetition and science fairs and museum visits;

books and drawings and even jokes about some of you.

You are an exploration and an explanation for all that is and was and can be:

revolving, spinning, following a path that passes each and every one of us in orbit.

If I simply go out each evening,

away from the cities and over-lit avenues,

I can glance skyward and search for you.

So fitting that many of your names are of the gods

so mythical and mighty that only you dare take those names.

I know you by your order,

but understand it is not by age or size or importance that I announce your existence,

but by your distance from the sun:

Mercury, Venus, my Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and yes ... Pluto.

Funny that our own evolution causes us to think of you less,

look for you less, speak of you less.

Only astrologers and astronomers invoke your names as if you had importance.

But you are all important to me

for it is on your behemoth backs that I have dared to dream of stardom

of space travel of star wars and star treks.

Imagination was ignited by your mystery and magic,

whether earth or rock or gas or ice, it did not matter.

What mattered were the possibilities that you offered;

the reasons for the struggle and the fight.

I salute you and thank you, for you have offered me the presence of a dream.

I. Mercury

Named for the Roman god of commerce, travel and thievery

you have been described as "eccentric."

Your temperature fluctuation is the most erratic of the planets

and so perhaps you are bi-polar.

But as you are the first that I remember,

I do not care that only part of your face has been mapped

or that your proximity to the flaming ball of energy

centering our solar system

makes it rather difficult to view you,

even at twilight,

because regardless ... i know you are there.

II. Venus

If you will, allow me to invoke your name

as you are the brightest in the evening sky;

certainly as the winter turns to spring

and snow melts to find the crocuses and daffodils.

As Earth's sister, the goddess of love and beauty,

I admire you and have looked to you in those clear dusk skies

and even when the sun has hidden herself away.

But I admit I could not stay with you ...

for a year with you is literally more than a lifetime,

and your pools of refreshing water have long since deserted you.

III. Earth

My home, my perspective, my history and future.

So much has been said of you by far greater than I: Galileo and Copernicus, Aristotle,

Socrates and the like, Keats and Frost and Dickenson, da Vinci and Edison.

Pondering their greatness and yours I am feeling rather minuscule.

You are however, the very essence of my being - the planet of life.

And while we are wrapped with more knowledge about you than any of the others,

will that be enough to save and cherish you in the end?

Special is your moon that has been visited by few and worshiped by many,

whether waxing or waning, the light in the still of the night.

Fitting that your name is unique, for it is you who hold the key to the universe;

the beings and creatures and living things that inhabit your orb

will ultimately find the answers, or die trying.

IV. Mars

As the red planet of war

you have driven science fiction that haunts our dreams

and peaks our curiosity of extra-terrestrial.

From what we know, your terrain is spectacular,

highlighted by permanent ice caps.

And while you are rather small, contemplation abounds

that you have life or might support part of ours.

Would you want us?

If perchance I found myself amidst your chill I would be adventurous I think

and climb your highest mountain - the highest in all the galaxy;

to stand on top of Olympus Mons ...

I think only gods know such elevation; such perspective.

V. Jupiter

You are enormous!

A huge globe - unimaginable mass.

In fact, you are the largest planet by far.

Appropriately King of the gods,

your zones and belts of colorful gas are like a painter's pallet.

Ironic to me that you are often called the wandering star ...

while I know that reference to you is more poetic than factual,

it allows my sense of awe to be tempered

with something more familiar;

maybe as I fancy myself a bit of a wanderer.

Nonetheless, you are a giant among giants.

VI. Saturn

Ring around the planet, a pocket full of moons ...

We have known you since prehistoric times,

but you confused and confounded us as we passed through

the plane of your rings every few years.

Those very rings, no longer exclusive,

would give us great challenge as we constructed

our solar system projects of fruit, Styrofoam balls and other crafts.

While others begin to boast what was once yours alone,

have no fear

as your bold bands continue to be the brightest and the most defined.

VII. Uranus

You are like those given names that sometimes haunt them.

Mispronounced; over-pronounced, it is your very utterance

that gives you popularity.

Hidden behind the snickers and shrugs, unknown to most,

are some marvelous truths:

You were the first planet discovered in modern times;

your moons, Juliet, Ophelia, Puck and Trinculo, to name a few,

are specially and specifically Shakespearean;

and your rotating axis (no pun intended)

is such a perplexity, no one can agree on which of your poles is north!

For all of us who have ever felt the sting of ridicule

you represent us in majesty.

VIII. Neptune

An apology is in order, as of all nine planets,

I have thought about you least and yet I cannot

articulate the reason why.

Most likely it is because you are more ordinary than the other distants -

like a middle child who is less attended

for reasons that have no rhyme or reason.

Looking at your hue however

I am mesmerized by blue ... blue like crystal waters

(or as your name invokes, the sea)

or summer skies or sapphire stones on a black velvet board.

In understanding that your winds would trump our wildest tornadoes

and summon the very breath of God,

I won't make the mistake of misplacing you again.

IX. Pluto

I know that you have been demoted

but I refuse to ignore you or degrade your original status,

especially because we have never even visited you.

And while you are the smallest, (smaller than earth's own moon)

and now considered a dwarf,

I am reminded of the phrase, "Big things come in little packages."

Like the underworld, you are perpetually dark.

You are like an abstract; a contemplation; an enigma.

In spite of that, your peculiarity and obscurity

have made you as popular as any other body in our vast sky,

as we squint through our most powerful telescopes to find you.

Finally, you are all, fundamental marvels.

No wizard or king or dictator or president;

not even the gods for whom you are named,

can deny your greatness or overthrow your influence or authority.

You are ultimately so magnificent -

mobile, suspended, embryonic and yet everlasting.

To each of you I articulate my honor and respect

shouting it out

to the vastness of your frontiers.

NOTE: This is not a "true" ode in the sense of structure. More modern odes have held more to the specific nature of honoring something and that is what this does. I was invited, as I may have mentioned to you before to submit a work to Isotope, a journal of literary nature and science writing. While the poem was not chosen for publication, I am most proud of it.