We’re Going to Mars This November and Bringing 1,100 Haikus

NASA’s space craft MAVEN (short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission) is newly arrived at the Kennedy Space Center, sitting in a big clean white room that looks like the TV scene in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and getting ready for its flight to Mars in November. MAVEN will be making this journey in the good company of over a thousand haiku, thanks to a University of Colorado contest, and here is the top space poem, as selected by reader vote:

It’s funny, they named
Mars after the God of War
Have a look at Earth

(Benedict Smith, UK)

The MAVEN team selected its own favorites, which are weirder (and you know how I feel about that):

I am the petrel
Exploring ancient shorelines,
Of long-dry oceans.

(Earl Frederick)

The migrant Rover
Unfolds a slip of haiku
And dabs its lens cap

(Anonymous)