Please Vote – Send My Haiku on Maven’s Mission to Mars #GoToMars

Please click on photo to cast your vote!
Image: NASA/GFSC

Sounds wild, doesn’t it?

It’s true, NASA’s MAVEN- Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolusion Mission is set to launch in late 2013, and offered the public a chance to climb on board…figuratively. 

School children were given a chance to submit artwork for a chance to have their art included as digital files on the DVD that will fly to Mars on board the MAVEN spacecraft! NASA chose to place all 377 entries from kids around the world on the DVD to Mars.

Folks were also offered the chance to send a message to Mars in the form of a haiku (line 1- 5 syllables, line 2- 7 syllables, line 3- 5 syllables style).

Many of you who follow this blog, know that I’m a haiku freak and write it every chance I get. I’ve loved the form since was a girl, so I jumped at the chance when I read about the contest.

Before you read the poem, there’s one thing I want to mention otherwise it might read weird to you. ‘Opposition’ in space terms is when Earth and Mars reach their closest point. 

Image: mars.jpl.nasa.gov

Here goes it:

Elusive neighbor

Converge in opposition-

Solely to be friends

I liked using the word opposition in the poem because Mars is the planet of war, so it can be seen as confrontational, but it really is a coming together. 

I do hope that you click on the top image to give my haiku a chance to travel to Mars, a 5 star vote would be great. Please tweet using the hashtag #GoToMars and share this with your friends on Facebook too.

 

#BlogFlash2013- Day 2- Technology

Day 2 – Technology

     It’s not as if one can write pretty prose about technology. It’s cold, technical,  highfalutin, brilliant, but too complicated for me to describe; nevertheless, write about in terms of endearment. 

     If you’re like me, you have a computer in front of you and your smart phone by your side, as you work on the former, and use the latter to constantly chime in on Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn, or Pinterest, blah, blah, blah, in an effort to keep up on social media. Oh, and then one cannot forget the Kindle, Nook, Kobo or whatever one uses to download books for their queue to review. 

     After crashing and burning in my first NaNoWriMo in November 2012, I chose to take a break from technology for awhile. My Klout score plummeted and my ‘reach’ dumped. I wasn’t on Twitter to RT or Mention or S.O. I did no liking or sharing on Facebook, and I worried about it… for about a nanosecond. 

     I realized that my writing had taken a backseat to it all. “Isn’t that what it’s all supposed to be about?” I asked myself. “After all, you’re new at this and wouldn’t time be better spent honing your craft?” 

     The answer was ‘yes,’ so I decided not to use technology at all. Instead, it was a yellow legal pad and a few sharp pencils, hard copy books from my shelves, and tons of children’s books from the shelves of my local library. I tucked my Kindle in a drawer. 

     I spent time in the fresh air of nature and went back in to meditation. 

     I got my balance back after taking a breather from technology. I returned to writing with a fresh outlook. The nicest surprise of all is that my Tweeps and FB friends supported me in my absence. 

     Technology, you can live without it…if only for a short while.

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