DAY #54 - Jupiter's Ball Today

Our last event is today, a little sad and a lot celebratory.

Join us for JUPITER'S BALL Today from 1-3pm slt, as DJ Dano Bookmite provides the perfect musical bookend to our project.  No torturing with the maze, this slurl will take you right to Jupiter's Ballroom.  (Or look for teleport signs at the main landing area on Olympus Island)

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA4/161/56/2643

Image by Wildstar Beaumont, for Designing World's DW336

And, just because it seems fitting, a reprise of MeteorMags planetary poem to Jupiter.

Jupiter

a planetary poem

by MeteorMags

you make me laugh until we tumble

into this drift like asteroids

coaxed by gravity

to surround this jovial hydrogen bastard

who disturbs the belt with his frivolities

and storms

laughter heals and lifts us past the pain

your tears on my shoulder and fictions

we dream together

love me for an hour then leave

traces of your orbit and clues you give

astronomers

to the sadness of the inner planets

where life only makes them realize

they’re small

i will never let them touch you

with telescopes and equations

I will erase their blackboards and crush their lenses

until all they know is mystery like a fool

i would keep you to myself

though your brightness burns for everyone

annihilation comes easily

rejuvenation takes more effort

or none at all

one word

one touch

will inspire

##

Poetry of the Planets will close on LEA 4 at 8am slt on Wednesday, May 31st. Some submitted works will continue to be posted here.
Thanks one and all for participating!

DAY #34 - BY JUPITER! The Last Planet is Open!

WHAT!?  Yes, it is true.  The doors to Jupiter have swung open (metaphorically).

The entry point is a huge maze that covers an area of some 60 meters.  Inside it you can discover different bits and symbols from the other six planets, which can be fun.  Your objective, however, is to find The Stair of the Gods, and climb it.  It is treacherous, so step with care!  At the top you will find a party!  That's right, Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity, has food and dance waiting for you in his Grand Olympian Ballroom.

Before Jupiter even opened, Mags took a swing at a planetary poem that is a great way to welcome the Giant of the Gods into our stellar system on LEA 4.

Jupiter

A planetary poem

by MeteorMags

you make me laugh until we tumble

into this drift like asteroids

coaxed by gravity

to surround this jovial hydrogen bastard

who disturbs the belt with his frivolities

and storms

laughter heals and lifts us past the pain

your tears on my shoulder and fictions

we dream together

love me for an hour then leave

traces of your orbit and clues you give

astronomers

to the sadness of the inner planets

where life only makes them realize

they’re small

i will never let them touch you

with telescopes and equations

I will erase their blackboards and crush their lenses

until all they know is mystery like a fool

i would keep you to myself

though your brightness burns for everyone

annihilation comes easily

rejuvenation takes more effort

or none at all

one word

one touch

will inspire

##

Poems and stories (2000w or less) can be submitted at the drop boxes on LEA 4, or by emailing them to caledoniaskytower at g mail (dot) com.

DAY #22: Starting a New Week with Mercury

I am really enjoying all the poems submitted.  But this one by Mags made me stop, and touched me.  

It's gratifying when someone "gets" what you are doing with a creation; then turns and shows you something new, and relevant.  Something you might not have deliberately intended, but which is clearly there and clearly right.

Mercury

- a planetary poem by MeteorMags

when you no longer hate the sun for shining

or curse it for bringing life

to our cold blue speck

when you run out of things to say

i will hold your heart in my hand

so you may count the petals of every flower

every hand that held another

holds us. ache for me when i am gone 

then realize i never leave you

write our manifesto and burn it

chart a course to bury treasure

our planted chest of golden coins

will grow to a garden of stars.

love it for me as if it is our child

my place is with you

we paint the stars together

when no one else is breathing

the moon hides below the horizon

our neighbors rise from beds

like corpses from their graves 

unable to recall the songs 

the mockingbird performed at 4 a.m.

the wind whistled down the asphalt

haunted only by coyotes.

my modern mercury’s caduceus

is a radio tower pulsing 

between realms like dreams

the serpents of his staff

become iron girders riveted to the sky

broadcasting love and fury

to the sons and daughters of lightning

spanning the globe under incandescent shelter

from midnight’s prehistoric treachery

clarity, communication

the courier’s gift

signals the dawn

##

Poems can be submitted at the drop boxes on LEA 4, or by emailing them to caledoniaskytower at g mail (dot) com.

DAY # 20: Unfinished Business - Mars

Mars

a planetary poem by MeteorMags

you and i have unfinished business.

you taught me destruction

a skill for leaving trails

of unmarked graves and broken spears.

your path leads nowhere but down.

stone is your only element.

you bask in the sun for millennia

and only learn what it means to burn.

you serve neither love nor justice

but conquest as its own reward

its prize a thread of wounds and ash.

what words could you offer for redemption?

how dare you speak them

over the eulogy of rain

and falling earth?

##

Poems can be submitted at the drop boxes on LEA 4, or by emailing them to caledoniaskytower at g mail (dot) com.

DAY #18: Both Sides of The Magician - Uranus

Uranus

a planetary poem

by MeteorMags

One side lies in darkness

never seeing light.

One side burns eternal day

to never see the night.

Celestial protogenitor,

Holst called you the Magician

whose wand bridges Earth and Heaven

to bring Idea to life.

Crowley called you Genius

but he knew the other side:

the pole unknown by light

descends to madness.

Without love, she turns to cruelty.

Thwarted, she seeks vengeance

like the Furies spawned from your blood

falling on the Earth.

But your blood on the waves birthed Beauty

who tempered the Furies,

turned them from their merciless mission

and made them protectors of her realm.

Thus, we know you are of two minds,

Uranus, Varuna, your coiled serpent rises.

Your first children were monsters.

Let us remember love, lest we become them.

##

Poems can be submitted at the drop boxes on LEA 4, or by emailing them to caledoniaskytower at g mail (dot) com.

DAY #17: Seeking Meaning Beyond ~ Neptune

Another great planetary poem from MeteorMags.  The intrepid Mags has sailed to all the open planets so far. Have you?

Neptune

By MeteorMags

you wait when light abandons you

to a frozen ammonia tempest.

forgiveness lives here

no more.

what becomes the sea without the sun?

what tide is borne without the moon

to bear it?

silent you drifted for centuries

while after you dreams dared not venture

and no one sang at all.

holst named you the mystic

but what knowledge awaits

your desolation?

the astronomer forsakes the city

for the unlit barrens

to see farther

past the realm of noise and mirth

and the din of blinding light

distraction.

busy with nothing

he discovers

what lies

beyond.

##

Poems can be submitted at the drop boxes on LEA 4, or by emailing them to caledoniaskytower at g mail (dot) com.

DAY # 12: The Privilege of Old Age

SATURN

 By MeteorMags

At your core, gravity crushes hydrogen 
into a liquid metal, where it becomes  
an electric conductor.

Holst, the symphonic astrologer, 
orchestrated your old age as
contemplative, serene.

A sadness boldly pondered 
resolving into acceptance

a vast lake of hydrogen
where tumult settles into ripples,
then the polished perfection of pearls.

Your moons attend you.
A family of sixty-two descendants
and admirers. They cannot leave your side.

Have you still the strength to
swing your scythe and reap for them 
a harvest? Prepare a feast for solstice.

Io, Saturnalia! Celebrate the sun
we thought was dying but was only
far away. Revelry summons rebirth.

Close the courts. No justice 
may be served today, nor any war declared.
We have eaten enough of our children already.

Let them grow old as we did.
Give them time to reach this aphelion 
and wear these rings themselves.

##

Poems can be submitted at the drop boxes on LEA 4, or by emailing them to caledoniaskytower at g mail (dot) com.

DAY #9: Venus, Oh Venus!

VENUS

 By MeteorMags

Second daughter of the sun,

Holst imagined peace in your embrace.

Without a moon of your own

you thirsted for the man

to caress your cloudy tresses

with cellos and rapture.

But without his fantasy

he could never survive your

pressure, your peerless heat

drenched in sulfurous sweat.

Your volcanoes erupt and

recarve your surface again

and again until they render you

unrecognizable.

Yet Gustav dreamed of you,

and in the lies one's mind

spins while sleeping 

he saw you not as you are

but as he wished you to be:

tender, resplendent, radiant.

##

Poems can be submitted at the drop boxes on LEA 4, or by emailing them to caledoniaskytower at g mail (dot) com.

DAY #7: Do Not Forget to Look Up!

It's the same in virtual worlds as in corporeal ones: people forget to look up, and even sometimes to look below.  Amazing what you can miss.

At LEA 4, you could miss the coins in Mercury (representing his status as the God of Commerce), and down on Olympus Island you could miss the planets and stars -  floating and in orbit - directly above the island itself.

MetoerMags did not forget to look up, and offered this poem.  She points out correctly that Holst did not include our Moon in his symphonic work.  But since Poetry of the Planets is intended to inspire creativity, and since creativity by its very nature is a form of open thought, we say, "What the heck!" and share this lovely lunar tribute.

Planets in orbit over Olympus Island + Linden Moon

****Holst didn't include our Moon so this one doesn't really count but oh well. ~ magz****

Frontier

By MeteorMags

Luna, our beloved crescent,

you swell until you are full enough

to hang heavy against the horizon

like the breast of a pregnant woman.

You will be the first we settle,

our laboratory to test survival

on other stones that fill the sky and

telescopes. How could we resist touching you?

Will you shudder with pleasure

beneath our fingertips, or recoil

at the machines and metallic intrusions,

the rivets and girders of our civilization?

You have been our goddess

since before the dawn of history.

Now we will bring you atmosphere

and mark you with our scent.

We have always been inseparable.

Now we will be close.

##

Poems can be submitted at the drop boxes on LEA 4, or by emailing them to caledoniaskytower at g mail (dot) com.