The Spectacular Solar System by Tahlia
(Trinity Anglican School, White Rock)

Neptune is furthest away from the Sun.
It’s extremely cold but still seems like fun.
It has faint, faint rings
and other cool things
like weighing more than a tonne.

Uranus is a giant ball of gas
which has a mega, mega mass.
It is number seven
and looks like heaven.
It would be a dream to go past.

Saturn is the second largest.
Its radiant rings are the best.
It is very cold
and I have been told
that it is way, way better than the rest.

Jupiter has dusk and dawn
ever since the day it was born.
It has a red dot
called the great red spot
which is a huge, huge wind storm.

Mars is a cold, cold desert.
However, it could be pleasant.
With rust in its surface
to mine for a purpose
we’d soon have a fabulous present.

Only Earth is a planet with water
which takes up just more than a quarter.
With heaps of things living
dancing and singing
some creatures are taller, some shorter.

Venus is so very hot.
In size, it’s like Earth quite a lot.
It looks bright at night
like an LED light.
Is 400 degrees hot or what!

Mercury has almost no air.
No human could breathe over there.
It is awesomely dry
like a cloudless blue sky.
I think I’ll learn more stuff to share!

Our Gas Giants by Bea
(Trinity Anglican School, White Rock)

There are four gas giants.  Jupiter is one.
But to stay up on Jupiter would be no fun.
Its Earth-sized core is extremely hot.
But its freezing clouds are certainly not.

A bit further out lays the beautiful Saturn.
It’s yellow and grey with rings forming patterns.
When seen through a telescope, Saturn appears
like a shiny round head with a pair of ears!

Uranus is next.  It’s the coldest around.
Like a marble rolling along the ground
it orbits our Sun, side-ways on.
Winter lasts 42 years long!

Then far, far away is a mysterious place.
Methane gives Neptune its stormy blue face.
So there, now you have it.  They’re gas planets four.
They’re the furthest ones out.  But there might be more.

These giants are cold.  The sun reaches barely.
Made of gasses and dust, could life survive?  Scarcely!

Space And Beyond by Charlotte
(Trinity Anglican School, White Rock)

Did you know that we live in a curious place?
The universe, which you know as Space.
There are trillions of planets like Earth and Mars.
Also billions of suns which we know as stars!

Now in the Space is the Milky Way.
Our Sun lives here, which we see every day.
At six thousand degrees on the outside, our Sun
would turn you to ashes in 1-2-3 done!

Last but not least is Earth, our home.
There may be life on Earth alone.
But nobody really knows that’s true.
I think it’s a fact, but how about you?

The Fantastic Solar System by Taliah Rose
(Trinity Anglican School, White Rock)

What planet is grey and yellow and has rings?
I believe it is famous for its icy flat rings in several groups of strings.
Have you guessed this planet yet?
Are you part of the Saturn set?
When you look high in the sky, it sparkles with bling.

Venus is the second hottest planet of them all.
It is the second farthest from the sun and is quite tall.
It’s yellow too.
You would need 38,000 km of kangaroos.
It’s also the same size as Earth, the only place you use phone calls.

Mercury is the closest to the hot exploding bright Sun.
I would go there just for fun.
Did you know its atmosphere has almost no air?
You couldn’t possibly get there unless you got dared.
I’m sure it weighs more than a ton.

Have you ever heard of the black hole?
It’s rather scary when you’re told.
It sucks you in
and stretches your chin.
But don’t be scared.  It’s wrinkly and old.

Terrestrial Planets by Lucian
(Trinity Anglican School, White Rock)

The Solar System is filled with planets and stars.
Especially terrestrial planets like Mars.
There are also gas giants like Saturn.
And the Milky Way has a dotty pattern.

The Sun is so very scorching hot.
If you landed there you would fry a lot!
Mercury is very small
and it almost has no air at all.

Venus has clouds that reflect sunlight.
Creating a light in the night that shines bright.
Earth is our planet and home which we live on
with a moon that weighs more than fifty tonnes.

Looking like it’s covered in rust
there’s a rocky clump of blood-red dust.
Fourth from the Sun, it’s the planet Mars.
And after that, it’s off to the stars!

There’s an environmental thread through these poems.

Rainforests by Ava
Whitfield State School

Rainforests: beautiful, lush and green.
Bursting with wildlife, a treat to be seen.
One bird starts to chirp an amazing song
then all other birds start to sing along.
A shiny green tree-frog has climbed a tree
as bush bees fly round very happily.
Owls and bats roam in the night.
They’ll not let prey escape their bite.

To figure out their current location
bats use precise echolocation
while owls can see in very low light.
Their vision’s right for sight at night.

And when the night turns back to day
diurnal creatures start to play.
And once the birds begin to cheep
nocturnal creatures go to sleep.

Rainforests: beautiful, lush and green.
This place full of trees is a treasured scene.

Oceans by Sian
Whitfield State School

Beautiful oceans, sparkling blue
so many creatures depending on you.
But sadly pollution is taking them down.
Our oceans fine beauty is starting to drown.

It’s not just pollution that’s causing some harm
but also the atmosphere getting too warm.
As icebergs start melting the sea levels rise.
Pollution solutions we need to revise!

Kelsey May is a spoken word poet and literary student at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan USA.   Her first book of poems and essays is titled Adrift.

You&aGlobe  by Kelsey May

Let your fingers explore the wonderful
crevices of the globe, sitting aside pen holders,
paper cups, things made of the earth. Your fingertips
smile at the notion that they can “see”

such wonders as the Grand Canyon, Sahara Desert,
Atlantic Trench, all while lifting a mug of cocoa
to your lips, adjusting the volume on
your shuffled playlist.

The leaves will brush up against
the windowpane, then kissing their glossy skin
to the lightsource like insects. Do plants ever feel

cold? You’ll shudder a glacierwide dread, counting
your blessings that you aren’t spending the night
beneath a bridge. But that would never have been

you anyway. Your fingers will find the Pacific Ocean
and think nothing of the plastic island as big as Texas.

Linda Poon is an undergraduate at the State University of New York (ESF) where she is studying ecology. She lives in Brooklyn with her cat and piano.

Cellular Life by Linda Poon

Isn’t it beautiful
that we are made of cells?
So simple, yet so complex
so small and yet so powerful.

Busy inside us
replicating, dividing
regenerating
growing at a rapid pace.
Supplying us with energy.
Giving us life.

So simple, yet so complex.
A myriad of cells
interacting with other cells.
All united in one.

Merrissa shares her love of physics, chemistry, astronomy and everything mysterious with her two daughters.  Her passion is creating glow-in-the-dark jewellery with her husband at Clover 13 in Texas USA.

All’s Fair In Earth’s Gravity
by Merrissa Sorrentino, Grand Prarie

Here is a lesson you won’t learn in class.
A gravity concept that leaves out the mass.
So pull out some paper and start taking notes.
There’s a moral inside that is getting my vote.

Gravity acts on us all as the same.
It doesn’t point fingers or play silly games.
We all hit the ground with the same exact speed
if we fall the same height.  No-one gets in the lead.

The black and the white, and the shades in between
are treated as equals.  The way it should be.
Light as a feather or heavy in weight
nobody comes in a second too late.

The good and the bad, the large and the small
they all become weightless when in a free-fall.

It doesn’t have favorites, or need to choose sides
a fact that can be easily verified.

The point of this lesson should be crystal clear.
I think that you know what I’m getting at here.
Stripped of our differences, one thing remains.
Deep down inside, we are all just the same.

Farther into the unknown
by Merrissa Sorrentino

Life is the question.  The answer, a riddle
But somehow we always get stuck in the middle
A complex emergence encrypting the code
The farther we wonder into the unknown.
Is it hidden somewhere in our “junk DNA”?
Or deep in the wrinkles inside of our brain?
Does gravity hold the answer inside?
Twisting and warping our view of space-time?

We sift through reality, lacking adhesion
Searching its matrix with no rhyme or reason
With each door we open, two more may appear
So answers become complex and unclear.
Uncertainty certainly plays a big role
By setting a limit on what can be known.
I assume this is how the rabbit-hole deepens
Just as we thought we were close to completion.