Astro Poetry: The First Starship

By Nancy Atkinson - September 13, 2013 at 2:08 PM UTC | Site News
ArtistVoyager1.jpg

Our favorite astro-poet,

Stuart Atkinson

, has written a wonderful ode to Voyager 1 in commemoration of the spacecraft reaching interstellar space. Stu has a knack for turning science into poetry!

The First Starship

I needed no nacelles to push me onwards; No dilithium crystals crackled in my heart. Yet I have left Sol so far behind me she is Just a star now, a golden spark in a salt grain sea, And I can feel her gentle breath on my cheek No more.

In my ears now the whalesong of the universe Drowns out the sounds of distant, troubled Earth. Oh, the blissful peace! Out here all I can hear Is the fabled music of the spheres. Each trembling tone rolling under me, Every mellow note washing over me Was sung somewhere Out There. Melodies ripped from ravenous black holes' throats, Screamed from the broken hearts of dying stars Swirl around me, multi-wavelength whispers In the dark and endless night.

My head is full of memories… Skimming Titan's marmalade-haze atmosphere; My first sight of Jove's great bloodshot eye, Staring back at me, into me, as I flew by; Earth as Pale Blue Dot, a Sagan sequin Dancing in a sunbeam…

Ahead now – the solar system's Barrier Reef. Terra will whip around Sol 300 times before I reach the Oort's icy inner harbour wall And tens of thousands of times more before I finally leave port, sailing on in serene silence For forty millennia more before I venture anywhere Near another star…

And in ten million years, when Earth's proud citadels And cities have crumbled and whatever evolves In their dust to take Mankind's place Stares out into space with curious, alien eyes, I will still be flying through the stars. Your legacy. Proof that once you dared to dream Noble, Camelot dreams And reached out, through me, to explore eternity.

(c) Stuart Atkinson Sept 13th 2013

Written to commemorate and celebrate the Sept 12, 2013 announcement that Voyager 1 had entered interstellar space.

Read more of Stu's poetry at this

Astropoetry website

and his other musings at

Cumbrian Sky

.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com