<div class = "block"><img src = "cosmos\graphics\stars.gif" style = "float:right;"/><h1>Cosmos</h1><h2>8 poems about space by Chris Godber</h2><p>The 'Cosmos' poems are a series of poems I wrote in 2012 on the theme of space travel, exploration and my feelings about how we as human beings relate to the stars.<br/>The poems were written to be simple and to the point while retaining the necessary sense of the mystical that must I feel mark any good poem about the celestial world above.</p><p><strong>Chris Godber</strong></p><h2>Instructions</h2><p>Read each poem by clicking it's title below.</br>Background information and context for each poem can be found by clicking the <strong>'Info and Background'</strong>links on each page.</br>Some of the poems also feature embedded youtube videos which relate to the poem, these are marked <strong>'VIDEO'.</strong></p><h1>Poems</h1><h3>1: [[A Poem for Future Cosmonauts]]</h3><h3>2: [[The Sacred Stars]]</h3><h3>3: [[Explore not conquer]]</h3><h3>4: [[One Giant Leap]]</h3><h3>5: [[Cosmic Haiku]]</h3><h3>6: [[Eclipse]]</h3><h3>7: [[Dr Noir]]</h3><h3>8: [[Five Step Sun Program]]</h3><p>Background Music is <strong>'Third Mind from the Sun'</strong> from my album Clockwork Hearts which you can Purchase <a href ="http://brokengod.bandcamp.com/album/clockwork-hearts">HERE</a> <p>Let me know what you think of Cosmos at<strong> email:</strong> chrispgodber@gmail.com</p></div><div class ="block"> <h1>A Poem for Future Cosmonauts</h1> Yuri Gagarin - red superstar, cosmonaut who went way up far, upwards above, viewed earth from space, how did he feel? Did he feel fear? Just one man, alone and displaced. Encased in metal in the stars above weightless and floating in mechanical hub. Technology takes us there, man meets the void, our birthplace, the final resting abode on the day it is over, when all goes cold. That red pioneers a hero to all, took baby steps to space with great aplomb, a walk which will one day turn into a run Never forget him, he risked the fall, that pioneer, that superstar, that cosmonaut man <ul><li>[[1: Info and Background]]</li><li>[[1: VIDEO - Gagarin Interview]]</li> <li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li></ul></div><div class ="block"><h1>The Sacred Stars</h1> In the darkness of enduring night, the blazing stars light our souls with a fire that burns, a desire that grows to organise the mystery, to honour the majesty of the cosmos, a billion suns explode, how wonderful, when they die they create as nebulae new life, and we too are birthed from them. The atoms within that make up the mass of us, this conclusive beauty, that the splendid stars that fell samurai style to bring light to eyes, voice to voice boxes. Honouring the cosmos with worship, lovers stare above embraced in starry night loving hugs, remembered birthing place,burning,blazing,sensual vistas of light and life and love. In life all is a cycle, the stars born and die, we are born and die the microcosm and macrocosm, beautiful universe lives within us, the flaming solar winds of the sacred human spirit rise then fall as ash from burning flame. Enjoy the cosmos, enjoy yourselves, the gift of life is as sacred as the stars, and the human spirit that sprung from them.<ul><li>[[2: Info and Background]]</li><li>[[2: VIDEO - Pale Blue Dot]]</li><li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li></ul></div><div class ="block"> <h1>Explore, not Conquer</h1> Space is the final frontier that sublime darkness, that which envelopes, and gave birth to a million dreams of man, to lie in the breast of the serenity of the cosmos. It cannot be conquered How can you bottle up miracles? It’s there to be explored a higher calling you cannot hide behind mere barriers in space Set aside your worldly concerns for tomorrow we blast off and holding hands as we ascend to the stars scream holiness, holiness as embraced by deep night and dark stars, we grow as seeds. <ul><li>[[3: Info and Background]]</li><li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li></ul></div><div class ="block"><h1>One Giant Leap</h1> His foot touched the ground light gravity, one small step and leaping out he found his center of gravity, declared one giant leap for mankind – bound next to bounce, up and down, up and down.</p> <p>Planted the flag, it marked their territory so all knew the essence of their victory and breaking membrane of atmosphere returned to ground, victorious and proud. smiles wider than the moon. That was 69 and now lying in bed, gasping half dead, looked out of window at the moon recalled the memory, embraced death, rasping he let go, took one deep dive, one giant leap let go of breath now a legends dead now a legends dead< dead dead dreams died with him too.<ul><li>[[4: Info and Background]]</li> <li>[[4: VIDEO - Reading of One Giant Leap]]<li>[[4: VIDEO - One Small Step for Man]]</li><li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li></ul></div> <div class ="block"> <h1>Cosmic Haiku</h1> Suns explode spit out the building blocks of mankind- solar sacrifice Gravity acts on all solar objects in space - balance of the earth Man looks at the stars admires their sublime beauty - memory of birth Black hole swallows whole - stars meet the oblivion greet death as all do <ul><li>[[5: Info and Background]]</li><li><a href ="http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Haiku-Poem">How to write a Haiku (External Link)</a></li><li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li></ul></div><div class = "block"> <h1>Eclipse</h1><div id = "circle"><div style = "margin:3px;"> <p class = "eclipseb"> Mysterious solar disc attends the sky. resplendent black dot</p><h1 class ="eclipse">Darkness</h1> <p class = "eclipseb">Where once light resided, The absence is marked in human mind the miracle of the cosmos giving birth to the negative.</p> </div> </div><ul><li>[[6: Info and Background]]</li><li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li></ul> <div class ="block"><h1>Dr Noir</h1> The skulking beast who keeps my eyes awake at night: Doctor Noir in his ancient throne surrounded by wires that criss-cross the stars to solar connection observes the heaviness of eyelids on cusp of sleep stares into my soul with some deep gravity that even I dare not comprehend or try and understand no blinking here, too wide inside a soul that tears at the fabric of reality chokes at the walls of sanity stops me in my stutter steps and screams unholy melancholy as braindead and cold flesh rips though his cold, logical husk of a brain. <ul><li>[[7: Info and Background]]</li><li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li></ul> </div><div class ="block"> <h1>Five step sun program</h1> <strong>I. Witnesses</strong> In the lexicon of our modern machine society we sat, myself and I and the female eye gazing into virtual mirrors above the binary trapdoor; <strong>II. A Shame (The Witch Medusa)</strong> We waned to connect eyes and minds and star/star genital baseness but in this brief human zoo, witnessed unkempt creatures baring teeth in political power hierarchies screeching of potential violent outbursts of nuclear powers – the splitting of atoms and hearts cocks, the atom mother laughing wildly the insane witch, broken forth from walls of white asylum beating the tune of meshuggah beyond the borders, over the hill. Hag Moses - screaming destruction as splitting hairs Norse god intent on the rape and the pillage – role reversal nucleus. We are finding new and novel ways to spit and rip the face of god who is in flesh the bleeding christ birthed forth from the womb of Medusa - crucifix bears witness to scars of womenkind's bearing and we are so proud. Of what? - machine cathedral feeding children in some sorrowful horror some test tube vial fetuses , as man wallow in victory, in melancholy truly We never embrace shocked sharp from the rip, the tips of the iceberg oh sexy, loving Medusa mother, oh holy corpse of divinity , smoke em up this world is for the living. Smoke smoke up your nuclear atoms splinter the realities and merge with unreal ambiguities <strong>III. Ambiguity</strong> We bear witness to the holy hermaphrodite star fucker world eater shiva sex bitch whip em up swallowing own cock / clit with delight of own taste transcending and destroying till only love remained in sight one small red light blinking in a room of blinding black light, a room of subconscious fairytale. A crowded empty prison, outstanding self sacrifice bursting forth from chest – the heart is a living organ feed it to your children the wisdom of ages old – love the breast milk that gushes forth from eternal mother, wife, sister, fuckbuddy and grandmother and for the sake of the so called living god don't judge, at least not too harshly. <strong>IIII. Judgement</strong> Man should think less man should kiss more man should kill less man should explore Man should seek to climb ladders build bridges never build gods in their own image as he has done for so very long <strong>IIIII. Final cry</strong> God was never here in sprit or in flesh aim your cunts away from this mystic vision and aim them towards the sun aim your cocks final jizz tastic spazz towards the nuclear reaction of solar dynamnism and love, love, love as the neverending stars nebulae - make love until your organic gears are worn from the grinding <ul><li>[[8: VIDEO - Reading of Five Step Sun Program]]</li><li>[[8: Info and Background]]</li><li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li></ul></div> <div class ="block"><img src ="cosmos/graphics/yuri.jpg" width ="300" class="picright"><p>On 12 April 1961 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space when he orbited the Earth once during a 108 minute flight.</p><p>In 1960 Gagarin, a fighter pilot, was shortlisted for the Vostok 1 programme, which built on the success of Sputnik 1 just three years earlier. German Titov was Gagarin's closest rival for selection - both men tried to impress space programme director Sergei Korolev.</p><p>Gagarin became an instant worldwide celebrity and visited several countries including Britain in 1961. However, he was never to emulate his success and died in a military training flight on 27 March 1968, aged 34.</p><p><strong>Source:<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/solarsystem/astronauts/yuri_gagarin">BBC Science</a></strong><ul><li>1:[[A Poem for Future Cosmonauts]]</li><li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li></ul></div><div class ="block"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MzzBr65ZFwM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><ul><li>1:[[A Poem for Future Cosmonauts]]</li><li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li></ul></div><div class ="block"><img src ="cosmos/graphics/the sacred stars.jpg" width ="300" class="picright"><p>My aim with this poem was to create a lyrical poem about the universe, and I purposefully used a lot of grand language and expressions.</p> <p>I want this poem to express the grandeur and power of the universe as well as linking these grand themes to more humane themes of connectivity and meaning as we relate to it.</p><ul><li>[[The Sacred Stars]]</li><li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li></ul> </div><div class ="block"><p>This poem is written as plea to humanity - a plea to transcend our monkey brain and aspire to a higher state of conciousness, that when we do develop the technology for interstellar travel we do not cling to the same limiting ideas of territory and tribe - and instead use our knowledge and achievements to build a better universe and existence for us all.</p><ul><li>3:[[Explore not conquer]]</li><li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li></ul></div><div class = "block"> <p>A poem in honour and dedication to the first man to ever walk on the moon...</p> <p>Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon. He was an astronaut. He flew on two space missions. One was Apollo 11. That mission landed on the moon. He was also an engineer, a pilot and a college professor. </p> <p><strong>Source:<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/who-was-neil-armstrong-k4.html">NASA</a></strong> <ul> <li>4:[[One Giant Leap]]</li> <li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li> </ul> </div><div class ="block"><iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z9WDsgCIroE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><ul><li>4:[[One Giant Leap]]</li><li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li></ul></div><div class = "block"> <p>4 Haiku about space</p><ul><li>5:[[Cosmic Haiku]]</li><li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li></ul></div><div class = "block"><h1>Concrete Poetry</h1> <img src = "cosmos/graphics/3-schwitters concrete.jpg" class ="picright" /> Concrete or shape poetry is poetry in which the typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect as the conventional elements of the poem, such as meaning of words, rhythm, rhyme and so on. It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has evolved to have distinct meaning of its own, but which shares the distinction of being poetry in which the visual elements are as important as the text. <strong>Source:</strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_poetry">Wikipedia</a></p> <ul><li>6:[[Eclipse]]</li><li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li></ul></div><div class = "block"><p>A nightmare, an imagined vision of the eyes of a dying God</p><ul><li>7:[[Dr Noir]]</li><li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li></ul></div> <div class ="block"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XH7ZRF6zNoc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><ul><li>2:[[The Sacred Stars]]</li> <li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li></ul></div><div class ="block">A strange and ambitious poem. Like some of the best poems I don't really know where this vivid poem came from. It is divided into 5 parts - which relate metaphorically and symbolically to each other. I could explain what I was thinking about with each stanza but I prefer to leave it open to interpretation, and I think the poem demands that too. <ul><li>[[Five Step Sun Program]]</li><li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li></ul> </div><div class ="block"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u70B-UUiQx4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><ul><li>8:[[Five Step Sun Program]]</li><li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li></ul></div><div class ="block"> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l40r1aI0aKM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <ul> <li>4:[[One Giant Leap]]</li> <li>[[Cosmos by Chris Godber]]</li> </ul> </div>