Celebrating World Space Week (4-10 October):

Dr Sam Illingworth is a senior lecturer in Science Communication at Manchester Metropolitan University and regularly writes poetry (including rhyming verse) about the latest science news! Mars rover Curiosity has been drilling holes in Mars rocks and its findings suggest that an ancient Martian lake evaporated, leaving deposits that eventually became like veins in the rocks below.

The Veins of Mars  by Sam Illingworth

Your crater stands abandoned in the dirt,
As thirsty dreams evaporate for good;
Beneath your dusty surface pressures spurt,
Leaving behind deposits in the mud.
They burn you with their sulphate-silic blood
And your horizons change beyond repair;
Then groundwater appears like a lost flood,
leaving behind pure sulphur in your lair.
We cut you with a knife and steal without a care.

Space extremes  by Marcus
Trinity Anglican School

The planets are spinning without a sound
as gravity swings those comets around.
While meteors smash and bash our planet
made from iron and rocky granite.

The core of the Sun’s fifteen million degrees
while Uranus has the coldest freeze.
It’s a race of extremes out there in space.
And the race in space is at a pace.

Poor little Pluto  by Isaac
Trinity Anglican School

Poor little Pluto
blue and sad.
But while he is sulking
he’s secretly mad.

“I’m not a planet!”
Pluto cried.
He just didn’t make it
although he had tried.

He circled the Sun.
Round and round.
A tick in that box.
He nearly was crowned.

Next test was simple.
He was small
but had enough gravity
to stay in a ball.

Here comes the problem.
Five large moons:
Charon, Styx, Kerberos
and secretly Troons.

Poor little Pluto
blue and sad.
These are the reasons.
I guess it’s too bad.

Celia adds:

Moons cause a problem.
There’s five in the mix:
Charon, Styx, Kerberos
Hydra and Nix!

Sparkling Sun  by Myuri
Trinity Anglican School

Sparkling Sun:
shining and fiery it bubbles and swirls
with dark cold patches while others around it
continue to twirl.

Mini Mercury:
smallest in the family, fastest runner
with extreme mood swings from a wintery cold
to a sizzling summer.

Violent Venus:
boastfully beautiful, this sparkly sister of Earth.
Cloaked by clouds, two planets comparable
were Venus and Earth.

Excellent Earth:
our Goldilocks planet, not too cold and not too hot.
Thankfully our happy home
in which we trot.

Mysterious Mars:
with a little help from some Techy-smart gnomes
in a few hundred years

this could be our new home!

Jumping Jupiter:
dancing with gases, it whips and whirls.
While its many moons spin
this giant ball swirls.

Stunning Saturn:
seven super rings made from dusty ices.
Spinning like a sparkling halo
her beauty entices.

Unique Uranus:
tilted on its side, the coldest light blue.
Discovered with a telescope.
Could we live there too?

Native Neptune:
dark navy blue, it’s running round lazily
far from the Sun
the second coldest in our family.

Peaceful Pluto:
the most famous dwarf planet, floating through space
this tiny ball of ice yearns to be a planet …
but had no case.

The Moon’s a Sickle  by Tom
Trinity Anglican School

The Moon’s a sickle
curved above the evening Sun
in a drowsy day.

When it rises
its beauty fills the land with joy
and owls come out to play.

If you look up at the Moon
you’ll see a kangaroo
engraved upon its face.

Some say it’s made of cheese
but I’d say not!
It’s a ghostly pretty place.

Meteor  by Robin
Trinity Anglican School

A meteor shower came storming
when planet Earth was forming.
One was nudged by larger rocks
and pushed off-course with bumps and knocks.
Eons later, back to Earth, that meteor would be coming.

When roaming dinosaurs were about
they ruled the Earth.  There was no doubt.
That meteor was not their friend.
With no warning of their nearing end
there was a most humungous crash, which wiped them all out.

Now when I look up to the sky
I wonder if that’s how our race will die.
Or will we work out a clever way
to deflect that meteor far away.
Before it comes whooshing by, anything is worth a try!

Four Gassy Planets by Kira
Trinity Anglican School

The biggest planet of them all
looks like a big stripy ball
with sixty-seven circling moons
Jupiter is … a gassy balloon.

Saturn has such startling rings.
I wonder if those rings can sing?
Made from many icy rocks
broken into tiny chunks.

Uranus is the coldest planet.
It says so on the internet!
This planet’s rolling on its side
and fifty thousand kilometres wide.

Is pure blue Neptune a ball of ice?
They say it’s gas, which would be nice.
The farthest away for us to view …
perhaps it’s blue all the way through.

Terrestrial Planets  by Tammy
Trinity Anglican School

Today I’d like to share with you
a little of my wisdom.
Some, you’ll know, some may be new
about the Solar System.

The planet closest to the Sun
is Mercury.  An iron ball.
It has no moon to look upon.
It’s rocky and terrestrial.

Venus is a steamy planet.
Its moons, the Sun has pushed away.
Clouds are made from sulphuric acid.
A third-of-a-year is a Venus Day.

Is Earth the only liveable planet?
It certainly is the next in line.
Liquid water will permit
our life-forms, which is fine.

Finally, a small red planet.
You guessed it.  It’s called Mars.
The last of the planets terrestrial.
Surrounded by the stars.

Exploring the Solar System by Jordi
Trinity Anglican School

Out in the depths of lonely space
some planets are humongous.
Compare their size to asteroids
and they’ll look like spores to fungus!

Mercury is the closest in
and also the hottest planet.
It has a heavy iron core
then lots and lots of granite!

Jupiter is the largest
with a hurricane red blister.
It also has no surface
(so that’s where I’d send my sister!)

Uranus is the coldest
and its name has made it famous.
It’s easy to make fun of it …
so poor, poor Uranus.

Pluto is the tiniest.
And to Pluto I would say
“You’re not a dwarf planet to me …
Honestly, you’re okay!”

My Planet Haikus by Tayla
Trinity Anglican School

It orbits quickly
around our majestic Sun …
Mercury of course!

Then there’s our sister.
The bade Goldilocks planet …
that’s steamy Venus.

Here is quite nice
if you need a little spice …
Earth is our planet.

I love the next one.
It’s flying among the stars.
It’s just planet Mars.

Here comes Jupiter.
The gargantuan planet.
It is enormous.

Sparkling Saturn
with circling icy rings.
The second largest.

It’s a pale light blue.
Do you think you can guess who?
Floating Uranus.

Blue Neptune is dark.
That’s not because it is sick …
And it’s NOT a Smurf!

The Solar System is Cool  by Louis
Trinity Anglican School

The Solar System is cool.
It spins round the Sun like a spool.
Sun gives light to the planets
their moons and the comets.
Our Soar System is cool.

The Asteroid Belt is sweet.
This ring of rocks won’t stay neat.
Some visit the Earth
(we’re not sure where they birth).
The Asteroid Belt is sweet.

Saturn’s rings are very pretty.
They look a bit like confetti.
They’re made of ice-dust
and ground rocky crust.
Saturn’s rings are very pretty.

Flight and the Environment feature in this year’s poems:

Feathers for Flight  by Harmonie
Whitfield State School

Birds are feathered, birds are light
Their wings are wide; their legs are slight
Their eyes give them superior sight
But how does this all aid their flight?

Their contour feathers catch the breeze
And help them ride the draught with ease
Some pretty plumes are made to please
While down makes sure those birds don’t freeze!

Their feathery wings can fan out wide
In order to assist their glide
But when those feathers want to hide
They come to rest on either side.

Protruding peepers both are set
On either side of a birds head
These eyes don’t see just straight ahead
But each side and behind instead!

My fact-file’s not yet reached its close
To ensure your avian knowledge grows
Did you know that each bird owns
A set of lightweight hollow bones?

My Flying Bubble  by Coco
Whitfield State School

Once upon a flying time
Atop my little roof
A bubble gave a muffled chime
By popping with a poof!

Its soapy droplets sprinkled down
And cleaned my jewellery.
And if I was a dusty crown
Now sparkling bright I’d be!

Busy Buzzing  by Ava
Whitfield State School

I’m buzzing past
an apple tree.
You’re stuck in the grass
and can’t squash me!

Gravity
pushes you to the floor.
With wings so pretty
I move much more.

A flower or five
sucking nectar that’s runny
then back to the hive
to make more honey.

When Keeper is through
taking our wax
and honey too
we’ll buzz GIVE IT BACK!

A Long Way From Home  by Jonathon
Whitfield State School

The Moon is dipping out of sight.
My spacecraft is currently in flight
orbiting Earth so very high
like a diamond in the sky.

Travelling towards the stars
the only planet in sight is Mars.
But soon my flight must come to an end
so I can spend time with my friends.

Rainbow Birds  by Tabitha
Whitfield State School

Graceful creatures in the sky
flapping their wings as they fly by.
Circling, soaring into the blue
glimpsing the ground in tiny view.
Glimmering in the sunlight’s kiss.
Radiant in their blue abyss.

In a Flap About Flight  by Evie
Whitfield State School

Although mankind has conquered the skies
with aeroplanes of every size,
despite our best scientific gains
we’ll never fly as well as planes.

It seems our bird-winged counterparts
have the ideal body parts.
A balance of wingspan, weight and strength
makes perfect engineering sense!

Hollow bones are strong yet light.
No wonder they are good in flight!
With an extra air sac on their lungs
a bird breathes better than anyone.

Yes, we humans grow tall and strong
but our weakly wingspan is all wrong.
As much as we’d like to get it right …
humans were never designed to take flight.

Cane harvest kites  by Helen Ramoutsaki

Dr  Sukarma Rani Thareja is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Christ Church College, CSJM Kanpur University, Kanpur, India.  She took the photo accompanying her poem near her home, depicting the first rays from the morning Sun encountering a pollutant in our atmosphere.

A Pollutant  by Sukarma Rani Thareja & Celia Berrell

An uninvited guest in our atmosphere
touches my face
taunting me.

“When are you leaving uninvited guest?”
I’ll count days on my fingers
and then make a wish.

When I was a child I remember being told
“Don’t cook your tea
with wood on earthen stoves.

Don’t throw garbage onto the roads
contaminate our rivers
like an uninvited guest.”

Now I am old  see through watery eyes.
My footprint ecological
has grown in size.

Somehow I’ve become an uninvited guest.
I’ll count days on my fingers
and then make a wish.

Just over ten years ago, the town of Picher in Oklahoma USA was declared the most toxic place in America. It used to be a lead and zinc mining area, but the region’s natural water supplies became so poisoned with mining waste, the local creek turned red and the town’s residents became ill. Everyone had to leave.  Sarah Roehrig says her new poem, inspired by these events at Picher, is a ballad about the environmental and social impact of mining.

Tar Creek Runs Red by Sarah Roehrig

Heavy, heavy song.
Rosebuds recycle rain.
Move the people upstream
And the voice of pain.

Repeat, repeat, mountains recoil
Dead like the Queen of the Nile
Pitchers of souls mine the coal
Smile a smile all the while.

The backhoe pulls, rolling right
Cut through the plug
Blood stains the biting clouds
Move the artificial light.

There is no beauty nor rest here
Rivers of blood
Cold mechanical lies
Drag through the mud.

Ashes fall, the fire is lit
One day they will arise
Spirit through bones, rhythm so strong
To hear their troubled cries.

Joel is 25 and believes as long as we stay true to ourselves, we will succeed in life, however crazy it may be. Thanks for sharing this touching environmental poem with us Joel.

Return to What Should Be  by Joel Ewing

All the tears I’ve tasted
for so many trees we’ve wasted.
It makes me wonder; wonder why
so few of us will ever try
to relieve mankind of ignorance
and shake us from this foolish trance.
Living the way some people are,
every day creates a scar.
Although our Earth is vast and great
at healing, making all things straight,
there’s no time for the world to wait
while we create a toxic fate.
Perhaps one day mankind will see
significance in every tree;
clean rivers flowing to the sea;
with everything as it should be.

Reinhold Mangundu is an environmental activist in Namibia and youth advocate.
He writes blogs and has just started to write environmental poetry too.

A Call for a Cure  by Reinhold Mangundu & Celia

Our world really needs you
to come to her rescue.
To work on a clue
of what we can do.

Our fumes give her fever;
a heat-rising danger.
Her life-blood of rivers
are choking with papers.

We’re losing more species
by chopping her fine trees
so birds are distressed
with nowhere to build nests.

Our world really needs us;
a people that she trusts.
Please work on a clue
of what we can do.