On Mars

[hack]

If life is found on Mars
I think I might go on

If I could not see my death
I'd take a few more steps

and if this was a circle
I'd slip up behind myself

I'll settle for this short arc
if life is found on Mars

I think I'll be alright
if there's only life on Mars

[cafolini]

I think you'll have to wait till hell freezes over. LOL You might as well make the decision to be alright before that. Your prerequisite is unattainable.

[cacian]

Great piece and thank you for posting :)


if life was not
found
on mars it would not
be called mars
it would be called tar.
life is tiny to big
a planet would not be
if there was not 'light'
life in this instance.
life is not just you and me
it is also others like
light stars and so on.

[Hawkman]

Hello Hack. It's nice to catch a glimpse of you, flitting through like a ball out of left field. Definitely quirky, this one. Very dry, like Mars ;)

Live and be well - H

PS, You don't play Banjo by any chance, do you?

[Varenne Rodin]

I like it. There might be life on Mars. Microbes. Algae. Something like that. Maybe we'll put life on Mars. I think water makes a lot of things possible.

[hack]

Thanks all. It is not really about Mars. Hawkman, does fe fi fiddle e i o mean anything to you? I believe in Mars but I am not so sure about Hell.

[phoenixtears]

At the most we can hazard a guess that MICROBES are present on Mars. I'd prefer to live on earth, with PEOPLE.

[Hawkman]

Well to be honest I didn't really think it was. I'm afraid the Martian quote is less than elucidating to one whose primary means of communication is English, so I'll just take that as a no :D I too believe in Mars, though I remain to be convinced of the viability of life on the second rock. Hell, however, is very real and can be found almost anywhere, particularly in places that are populated. Was it not J-P Sartre who postulated that, if I may freely paraphrase (or even blatantly misquote) "hell is other people?" There certainly seems to be a despair hinted at within these lines, which could be taken to be comment on life in general and a weariness expressed about a state of being, or it might even refer to these boards!

However, I am minded to observe that, perhaps

"and if this was a circle
I'd slip up behind myself"

might be more gramatical with were as the whole forms a conditional clause. You might even dispense with if altogether , "and were this a circle"

However, I suspect that only anal retentives like me are bothered by these things ;)

Live and be well - H

[cafolini]

I think that one was "I'll kick my own arse before I depart." LOL

[hack]

Hawk, you are right of course.
The Hell (capital H) I referred to is not allegorical.
I know that the hell you and Sartre reference is very real, been there.
Fe fi fiddle e i o is not Martian as far as I know.
The next line in that little ditty is "strummin' on the old banjo".
The poem is about disconnectedness, for most of us there is nothing so disconnected as Mars, present company excepted.

[Hawkman]

Have you been to Norway by any chance, hack? there is a village there called Hell. I haven't been there, but my brother has. He sent me a postcard. Now that's an idea: I could write a poem called "Postcard from Hell" I hereby ringfence and copyright the title!

Sadly, the lines of not-Martian do not trigger any memory of a tune in what passes for my mind. I recently, and appropriately, learned to play "Man of Constant Sorrow" on the Banjo, courtesy of YouTube lesson from Rob Bourassa, who is not only a good teacher but an exceptionally talented musician. I still haven't mastered a sycopated pick though.

I agree, connections can be few and far between. I treasure mine.

Live and be well - H

[hack]

Never been to Norway. I have been to Devil's Throat, though. I was there before it was fenced. It is near Little Finland and Hobgoblin's Playground, close to Gold Butte. When my companions and I walked up to the edge of the sinkhole we heard a noise that turned out to be a mallard duck at the bottom of the deep steep-sided hole, situated incongruously in the middle of relatively flat desert surroundings. We evidently disturbed the duck's peace and he began to fly out. The hole being so deep and the space so confining that the duck was forced to fly in circles making several circuits before it exited only a few feet from where we stood. The exhausted duck barely cleared the edge and if any one of us had only reached out we might have touched him. It was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. I might that I wasn't that high (just a puff or two for medicinal purposes).

[AuntShecky]

This witty little piece sums it up, I guess -- if life is indeed found on Mars, what's it to us? (Unless, of course, the lifeforms are actually little green warriors out to get us, like "Marvin the Martian" in the old Bugs Bunny cartoons.)

Hey, Hack-- if you have a spare moment, take a look at this squib about "Martian Poetry":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_poetry

Last April yours fooly attempted writing "Martian Poetry" herself, in the
"30/30" thread for National Poetry Month, but rather than contaminating your thread, I'll re-post it in me own:

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?45537-Auntie-s-Anti-Poems&p=1210646#post1210646

[hack]

Thanks for the links Auntie. They are appreciated. This poem was inspired by a recurring nightmare that I have had since shortly after my beloved Grandfather died in the late 1950's. I have only recently come to understand that the dream is specific to that loss. Live and learn.