PS Cottier

It’s fifty years since Yuri Gagarin went into space (April 12), following a few unfortunate animals who had no choice.  No doubt about it, he was brave. There are many events happening worldwide for ‘Yuri’s Night’, go here for more info.

Here’s a little poem about him. This poem was previously published in The Mozzie (Queensland):

Gagarin’s death

Yuri Gagarin, first human being in space, died on a training flight in a MiG jet on 27 March 1968.

Some say it was the weather,

and others far too much fuel;

and of course, conspiracies

always have their murky place.

Personally, I believe it was

a simple swarm of birds.

Not envious, not teaching

a Soviet Icarus a thing or two.

I think they just came to see

a man who’d seen much more

than any stonechat who knows

Summer Siberia and Winter Japan.

At least you died in flight.

Some things just have to be.

P.S. Cottier

***

And then there’s Mars.  When are we going to get there?  Here’s another poem about space exploration, previously published in this very blog in 2009:

Dear NASA,

When we reach Mars, kicking up red dust,

walking against gusts like Marcel Marceau,

let’s not do what we did on the Moon,

forty leap and leap-less years ago.

Let us not plant any one nation’s flag,

like a toothpick through a lump of party cheese.

Might a woman set her feet first on the planet

so often connected with war?  And please,

please, no one takes golf clubs, whether niblicks

putters, drivers or irons. Let Mars stay a place

untouched by sprees of futility, no heady sticks

to launch tiny white balls into circles of space.

Leave no junk; let the plains spread clearly.

Just a few thoughts from

yours, sincerely.

P.S. Cottier