As today the people celebrate the World Poetry Day,
and many times poetry was a great friend of astronomy
and even a part of it, the Romanian Society for
Meteors and Astronomy-SARM realized the special
collection of historical, observational and
philosophical astropoetry below, dedicated to the
comets mailing list coordinators and to the comet
lovers from all over the world.
Enjoy!
-Andrei Dorian Gheorghe (SARM cultural counselor) and
Valentin Grigore (SARM president)-

ROMANIAN COMET CONTEMPORARY POETRY

“Calliope and Urania can make wonderful things
together.”
-Emil Neata-

“Do not tell me that some pictures could replace what
I saw in the sky with my own eyes. Never!”
-Sorin Hotea-

“…we also are a bright speck of light, sometimes next
to a comet.”
-Calin Niculae-


COMET HAIKU
-by Lucian Boboc-

Another long-haired star
lost in my desert dream;
I ask myself: “Is SHE…?”

COMET DEFINITION
-by Constantin Huth-

Like a photonic collector/splitter…

FOUR HAIKU FOR A 76-YEAR PERIOD COMET
-by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe-

comet halley
its periodic visit
stairs over history

comet halley
its periodic duty
other meteors

comet halley
fire lost by the waterman
eta aquarids

comet halley
hot drops of the hunter’s blood
orionids

THE ROMANTICAL COMET
-by Adrian Sima-

A comet with beams knitted on her face
and with her long hair setting
like the skies in our planet’s seasons

A comet waltzing romantically
in the cosmic ink
like a breath in a sigh
to the rhythm of the wave
that shipwrecks the brass moon
like a new ark

…Like some suns in a galactic racecourse,
horses of light,
ridden by bidimensional seconds,
run on her tail

Blue skies,
captive in the morning of an astral summer,
rise from their white fields

On the day time,
she is asleep,
hidden by the sunlight

On the night time,
she is awake,
combed by Ra, the god-knight

COMET BIELA AND THE ANDROMEDIDS
-by Zigmund Tauberg-

As many other comets, that one
Disintegrated itself on its way,
A stone body transformed into
Meteors, even fireworks - we could say.

ANALITICAL-ROMANTICAL COMETS
-by Silviu Georgescu-

Squares divided to other squares
Plus other squares divided too
Give certainly and simply an unity
On which my comets run

They compete as athletes with shining traces
On the same eternal, colorless corridors,
Troubling powders and mists
With their sidereal races

They go to unknown horizons and come back
A mystery hides their living, and maybe
They carry a divine secret: they see
And own (why not?) immortality

COSMIC NOBLESSE
-by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe-

members of Kreutz comet family
happily sungrazing
imperial light

THE HILL ORCHARD
(in memory of Victor Daimaca, the Romanian sky lover
who discovered two comets in 1942 and 1943)
-by Dan Mitrut-

*
“My son, here is the wonder!”- said my father, showing
the sky. And his eyes seemed to be living aldebarans.

The comet lightened the whole village. My eyes
understood the darkness. My heart pulsed so strong,
that a bird rushed out to space.

“This comet will pass over the Sun and will tell, in
its world, about our nights when people watched it…”-
I said.
“How many people?”
My father’s voice was dreaminess. My thought was a
fiery flight among the stars and wonderful worlds.

*
My father used to take a comet, or a falling star, or
another heavenly body, and to close them into a pear,
or a nut, or an apple. And when I ate starry fruits,
he asked me, for instance:
“How is the taste of Arcturus?”

*
I never knew to speak with him. I just saw, beyond the
words, the whole starry sky living free in the hill
orchard, in flowers and butterflies. And solar systems
with their histories rustled in my blood.

*
Years passed. One day, my father gave me his treasure:
three pears and a parchment written in a forgotten
language. And he started on a star mane, disappearing
into the hill orchard, where the branches of the trees
are full of golden suns and diamond galaxies, and a
milky river flows in the middle of its garden.

COMET
-by Constantin Dumitrescu-Cunctator-

She steps gently
like a queen in her space so far.

She doesn’t laugh, she doesn’t cry,
a sphinx with a snow body
like a corner fallen from a star.

UNWONTED
-by Florian Saioc-

Let’s run through the Universe on a comet
which would take us
from our narrow space,
from our dead time,
from those who polluted our planet.
The trip would be free and unwonted.

And if a cosmic cataclysm would happen
in that fascinating site,
then we would make a pirouette with a
meteoroid… meteor… meteorite.

TO A COMET DISCOVERER
-by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe-

comets after comets
glad to sign in your soul
David H. Levy

IDEAL STATE
-by Diana Maria Ogescu-

Things mixed
petals of roses
and fragments of stars.

People walked or flew
on alternative roads,
pieces of earth and sky.

On its perihelion,
a tender comet
played with the Sun.

COMET OBSERVER
-by Emanuela Ignatoiu-Sora-

I attract comets for my eyes
and then I throw them
back to the universe

SHOEMAKER-LEVY
-by Ion Moraru-

In full normality,
a bored ear listened to
a radio telling about a point
that penetrated a telescope.

The ear became attentive,
the point became bigger,
the eye remarked a comet
walking and scrutinizing the planets.

The listener received an impulse,
the comet gave him a surprising emotion,
and also drove away Jupiter’s boring.

Then… the giant planet attracted it
into a kind of vortex,
an impossible gravity,
explosions came for each fragment
…and all returned to normality.

HAIKU
-by Iulian Olaru-

through the darkness
steps dream of the comet which gleams
on the mountain top

COMET AND DISCOVERER
(in memory of Yuji Hyakutake)
-by Valentin Grigore-

The people have rules regulating their relations with
the heavenly bodies.
Many times the heavenly bodies receive names of
people.
Do the people understand this as an obligation to
shine like the heavenly bodies?

People or heavenly bodies? People and heavenly bodies…

The human universes together with the celestial
universes make the Universe. But all depends on our
content, good or bad. And this is very important,
because every one of us represents something of the
components of this giant joint mosaic, in which
Hyakutake was one of the greatest pieces.

HAIKU
-by Michaela Al. Orescu-

comet under shock-
chain of reverences
in disintegration

THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER
-by Victor Chifelea-

The comet – space marathoner
runs disheveled
always on the same itinerary
known only by herself

When she passes through
our telescopic windows
we encourage her trial
of self-outrunning

But she hopes to find
the finish
of a competition
which will never end

HUMAN AND UNIVERSAL MEASURES
-by Ionel Catalin Diaconu-

Some people
were born points
(asteroids).
Other people
were born virgules
(comets)-
they are creators.

HAIKU
-by Sergiu Dobos-

the comet cried again
rending immensity
with divine sparks

INCIDENT
-by Gelu-Claudiu Radu-

“Drive the clouds away
with your hands
to see the comet!”

After a few moments,
the stranger asked me:
“Is it a joke?”

THE FANTASTIC DECADE OF THE COMETS
-by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe-

I would have liked to watch
Cheseaux’s unusual comet in 1743-44
with its six tails
(like a space lady with a fan
melancholically walking),
or the Daylight Comet in 1910
(like an amazing void bird),
or the Eclipse Comet C/1948 V1
(like a cosmic greeting to the
finest acrobatics of sun and moon),
or many other great comets…
But I was lucky enough to live
the fantastic decade of 1990s…

A comet should mean more than
a nucleus with a mane,
a dust tail with an ion tail,
or a capricious period around the sun,
or a promise for meteors…

So let me think a little of
some of those sky gestures
coming from the Oort Cloud.

*

A Romanian old proverb says:
“A whole year does not give
what an hour could give.”

-1992. Comet Swift-Tuttle.
The most constant friend
of the meteor lovers,
a period of over 120 years,
and a long, judicious distribution for
spectacular August Perseids.

-1994. Comet Shoemaker-Levy.
Usually, the comets prefer
to embrace the Sun,
but this time a comet fell in love
with the planet Jupiter.

-1996. Comet Hyakutake.
It comes so seldom
to the same places
that it seems to be
a long walking silver treasure…

-1997. Comet Halle-Bopp.
Such an amazing show
made us feel helpless:
a new dimension for
the comets’ greatness.

-1998. Comet Tempel-Tuttle.
Another great friend
of the meteor lovers.
A period of around 33 years,
and a short, temperamental distribution for
very spectacular November Leonids.

So, cometarily speaking,
a whole millennium does not give
what a decade could give!

*

Certainly, I shall never forget
the comets of the first years
of the 3rd millennium,
but now I’m thinking:
the 2005 impact with an
explosive NASA mission
was for Comet Tempel 1
as the 1994 impact with
Comet Shoemaker-Levy
was for Planet Jupiter…

COMET
-by Stefan Berinde-

Only the Sun in front of mine,
its warmth melting
my cold memories

THE ANTI-EURIDIKE COMET
-by Boris Marian-

To the end of the trip, where the lack is,
you don’t see your white hair and sins.
The Ideal and Personal Woman appears
with her body in a royal mantle.
One day you were very trustful,
but the illusion begins to go
through the starry dust, among the fixed stars,
a Beatrix poem synthesis,
and Euridike does not follow you.

“Go forward on your ways,
I am alive”,
the comet says.

HAIKU
-by Tina Visarian-

love penetrating the comet
meteors falling
the moon’s shine in hearts

THREE TRAGI-COMICAL COMETS
-by Arnold Leinweber (1920-2006)-

1. THE TEMERARY

One night
among the stars of the chaos,
a comet started,
using a new fuel.
But, after a long way,
it couldn’t pass out of
the solar system’s borders,
and lost its combustible
(what an important mistake!).

The merciful Sun still lightens it, and now
the comet is just a frail lamp above my lake.

2. SUN, COMET, METEOR

“What can I do?”- said a comet.
“If I continue as a migratory being,
I lose my matter,
becoming just some poor meteors.”

“This is your destiny!”-
replied the Sun. “Sorry!
Passing again around me,
not even a meteor you’d be!”

3. IN CAPRICORNUS

In a place of the galaxy,
The Capricorn is the emperor,
And, in his work zone,
A long comet appeared.

Intrigued, he asks himself,
Looking at this show:
“But my horn?
Why does it not grow?”

AT THE OBSERVATORY,
2002, MAY 1-2
-by Adrian Bruno Sonka-

Ikeya-Zhang, Linear WM1,
Snyder-Murakami, OG108 Loneos,
me and a 240mm telescope.
The first of them, a magnitude of 4.5,
visible all night long.
The others, around 10.5 magnitude
(only the last of them was diffuse)…

Come on, come on…
It’s very spectacular to see
4 comets in 3 hours.
Trust me!

SHINE
-by Gabriel Ivanescu-

We would like to shine
like the stars,
but their level is too high.

As the Universe is in expansion,
we could try to shine
like the comets…

C/2002 V1, NEAT, JANUARY 2003
-by Alin Tolea-

A magnitude of 6-7, under Pegasus.
Congratulations!
That poor comet, in Pisces, defeating
Our expectations!

SUFFERING FROM COSMIC LOVE
-by Dominic Diamant-

Alone and depressed like nobody
I was suffering from
my unmet sweetheart.

With my space ship
(in fact, a comet in leeway)
I was sinking into
never-ending ethereal waters,
but suddenly an unknown voice
whispered to me:

“Do not despair, man,
your sweetheart is waiting for you
in the other side of the Universe.
You must believe and wish!”

In that moment,
I was reborn.
My despair disappeared,
my suffering too,
and all stars
empathically follow my flight.

Oh, if I could advance
with the speed of light!

Oh, if I could be faster
than my overwhelming emotion!

Otherwise, I am sure
that my dreamt sweetheart,
a being so vivid,
comes to me on other comet
with the same speed.

IKEYA-ZHANG, MARCH 2003
-by Alexandru Conu-

Watching it through my binocular,
the comet is quite nice-
splendour in green.

COMET
-by Diana Iepure-

Today is tomorrow
tomorrow will be yesterday
the sand of my time is rotting
in a broken hourglass
decomposing into
past and present and nothing

and leaving traces of falling comet
in the sky

IKEYA-ZHANG, END OF MARCH 2003
-by Ovidiu Vaduvescu-

A small comet near Mirach,
in my polluted sky.
Watch it, please. Then
for 300+ years… good bye!

COMETARY DREAM
-by Irina Cristescu-

The sleep guards
a sublime halo of dreams.
Reality - a comet nucleus,
dirty ice,
but finally purified by the Sun,
a messenger of the divine message
eternally present in dust tails,
but ephemeral in consciousness.

Life’s brightness comes from detaching,
through a long dusty hibernating,
through the old dream, which begins with
“once upon a time…”

COMET
-by Diana Georgescu-Mitrut-

flight of planets in my soul
I always wander
to catch light

EVE WITH A COMET
-by Dimitrie Olinici-

At the New Year’s Eve 2004-2005, I lived an
extraordinary astronomical night at my countryside
private observatory in Horodnic-Suceava.
I observed Comet Machholz, other sky objects, and
later the Moon, among folk habits:
Christian wishes, barbarian dances, enthusiastic
shuts, fireworks, drums, whips, alphorns, bells, fine
crackers, and other instruments to drive the demons
away…
It was something both divine and infernal…

IMAGE
-by Paul Boboc-

the song of a comet-
a boulder of wish…

2005 JANUARY: A VISIT FOR COMET MACHHOLZ
-by Andrei Vasiliu-

Taking my wife, taking my cat,
taking my lunette, taking my binocular,
leaving my cat, taking my camera…
and starting to my parents-in-law,
to the edge of my town
(reasons of light pollution).

There:
installing the lunette,
eating and gossiping…
Stop: time for observations!

Observing the Pleiades,
observing Comet Machholz
(green and fluffier than the stars),
observing the Hyades,
observing no meteor…
Photographing Orion, Taurus, Gemini…
From time to time using my binocular
(which makes me feel among the stars)…
And suddenly Saturn appearing from
behind the only one tree in that zone…

It’s late, said the others,
tomorrow we have to work at our jobs,
so packing up all
and going home.

COMET HAIKU 2006
-by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe-

A new character
in cometary stories;
Welcome, Pojmanski!

OTHER ONES
-by Cristina Slovineanu-

We all use the skies,
but some ones make borders,
and other ones look for infinite paths
and adore the sunsets.

We all need love,
but some ones try to hide the stars,
and other ones believe in flight
and look for comets.

ASTEROIDAL GAMES OUT OF TIME
-by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe-

When I am on Vesta, my love,
you hide beyond Astraea.
When I am on Juno, my darling,
you hide beyond Ceres.
When I stop on Pallas, my sweetheart,
you call me from Hebe.

But when we want to come back home,
we choose a rendezvous point
on 3200 Phaeton
(which comes from a lost comet nucleus),
and, after a few other maneuvers,
we go to the Earth
with the Geminid meteor shower.

FINAL INVITATION
-by Lucian Boboc-

Oh, comet, comet,
you are so nice!

Come with my dream among the stars,
do not stay,
come to see some gorgeous planets
and to refresh yourself a little
in the Milky Way!

-English translations from the Romanian by Andrei
Dorian Gheorghe-

***
Please visit:
-The Best of SARM Astro-Photo-Art-Poetry
http://www.cosmopoetry.ro/tbos/
-SARM Golden Astropoetic Gallery
http://www.sarm.astropoetica.com/
-Meteor Contemporary Poetry Project
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/imo-news/message/1649
-Andrei Dorian Gheorghe’s Astropoetical Works
http://www.cosmopoetry.ro/3astro-sketch/



* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Valentin Grigore
President of SARM
(Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy)
CP 14, OP 1, Targoviste, RO-130170, Dambovita, ROMANIA
phone: +40 245 213851, +40 0722829034 (gsm)
e-mail: president@..., vali_sarm@...
*******************************************************
SARM is the National Astronomical Society of Romania
******************************************************

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