To the Moon!!

 

And it's official! At 2:34 a.m. today, March 2^nd,  2025, Firefly’s Blue Ghost Serenity Mission landed safely on the moon, and attached to the lander are archived works from The Lunar Codex, which I am so very proud to be a part of!

 

The Lunar Codex is the brainchild of Dr. Samuel Peralta, an artist, a writer, a poet, a musician, and yes, an actual physicist, who had the vision to preserve and archive the works of artists, poets, musicians, and filmmakers from around the world. It contains 250,000 cultural artifacts from over 45,000 artists, writers, musicians and filmmakers representing 262 countries & territories and 149 indigenous nations, launched in over 7 missions from Earth to space, the moon, and beyond!

 

The Lunar Codex uses digital and analog technology to preserve on nickel based NanoFiche, an archival medium that is expected to last hundreds of thousands of years, if not more. The advantage of using digital technology is its ability to record enormous amounts of data with a very small weight profile. They are stored in the LifeShip Pyramid that is part of the LifeShip payload, physically attached to the lander. The lander becomes a marker for the location of each Lunar Codex collection.

I am proud and humbled to share that The d’Verse Anthology: Voices of Contemporary World Poetry, Edited by Frank Watson and published in 2013, was on the Serenity Mission. I congratulate my fellow d’Verse poets. Who knew when we shared our voices for this book that we would be a part of something so much larger?!!

Much gratitude to Samuel Peralta, my fellow poet and a mentor at d’Verse, for working diligently to make The Lunar Codex, his vision and dream, a reality!

Just an idea...

 

In the beginning was an idea

and the idea took root

and we drew stick figures

to share the images we saw.

But that wasn’t enough...

so we invented symbols

and symbols became letters

and letters became words

and we described the intangibles—

light and dark, hot and cold,

the sound that tree frogs make,

the “forty shades of green” on an Irish hillside,

the smell of the rain on a summer's day–

all the subtleties that paint the world

    —and everything in it.

The words became images again...

not stick figures, ones 

we could feel, could smell, could taste, could hear...

These images were written into languages

and lyrics, and poetry, and books;

shared in sculpture and art, photography and film,

to become the history of our civilization.

Never underestimate the power of an idea

for it will move mountains, ford rivers, cross oceans

travel to the moon and beyond—

in stories that will last much longer

 than any one of us ever will.

 

©Ginny Brannan 2023 

 

The Undertaking

She views the world through autumn eyes

that on this day are cast in gray

as winter tries to tip the scale…

Weeks and months and years have passed

to leave eroded and refined

each moment lived; each bend and turn

etched in crease and smile line.

   And always playing in her mind

   the words that paint the world she sees—

   the people met, emotions felt;

   thoughts that bend and twist within

   and beg escape from their confines

When did such purpose come about—

a want, a need to somehow share

and bare the colors of her soul…

when even casual observation

implores discovery on a page.

   And the words…. always ruminating,

   to form and re-form, while creating

   background music heard by one.

   You’ll see her jot a line or two

   on any scrap or sticky note,

   or back of envelope will do.

   And on rare times when words align

   to culminate with her inflection

   she’ll deem a poem or piece complete

   or at very least well- honed

   to “acceptable” perfection.

She sees her world through autumn eyes

as winter creeps up on her trail.

Time has deepened tone and voice

—so often lost within the forest

of other voices in the chorus—

becoming still as life assails

till call to write once more prevails;

another story whispers, waiting,

   the challenge in the undertaking.

© Ginny Brannan 2016

This was written in 2016, and published in the collection: Poetry as a Spiritual Practice: Illuminating the Awakened Woman—a collection of poems by the Journey of the Heart Poets available at Amazon.com

This Cynical Heart

Imagine a place with no pain existing,

where ills that are carried through life disappear.

Like Thomas, this heart is quite bent on resisting,

yet lingering questions insist on persisting;

their answers illusive and ever unclear.

And still I am finding my mind keeps returning

whenever the stillness and quiet appears.

I ponder the purpose of life, disillusioned—

the darkness that settles with no set conclusion;

for ages I've tarried, alone and austere.

I wonder how long I've withdrawn in seclusion,

closed off from emotion, my goals cast unclear—

Where cynical thoughts thrive without absolution,

despondent, in need of insightful intrusion…

does anyone notice behind this veneer?

In my heart I envision a child that’s running

and playing with others, no longer constrained—

surrounded by light of the love that he carries,

his purpose fulfilled, this small emissary

reminds us “Be happy, we'll meet once again.”

© Ginny Brannan 2015

Sharing at dVerse Poets Pub February 2015 OLN. Come celebrate the changing of the guard! Brian & Claudia, we are indebted to you both more than we can express—many thanks to both for all you have done, and for all of your support to the writers that share here. And all the best to both the old and new pub-tenders!

The Writer

How do you describe someone

   with a depth of thought,

   emotions etched inside his words,

   and a heart worn on his sleeve?

We hang on the snapshots of his life…

   the love, the anger, the hope,

   the dreams, the joys and sorrows…

We follow him down sunny paths

   and decaying streets

   and see life through eyes

   both jaded and ever hopeful…

For his story is our own...

we recognize ourselves in it—
and we are touched and
changed forever in the reading.

© Ginny Brannan 2015

Nick Gentry, Capture 2014

Written for d'Verse Poets Poetics: Nick Gentry

Possessed

Poet's Sleep, 1989, by Chang Houg Ahn 

Corpses of empty words and half-written poems

litter vacant halls inside my head…

The floodgates open, words careen

to slip and dissipate as fast

dissolving just beyond my grasp…

I hear the sound of hollow screams,

as ghost-chains rattle broken dreams;

and phantom shadows dance in ceaseless

search for shape and form...

 Yet still I write—

 holding tight to scattered

 thoughts on fragile pages,

 as each word unlocks

 the spirituous haunting

 of my soul.

© Ginny Brannan 2014

Written for Magpie Tales #208

Image provided by Tess Kincaid. Come see what others are sharing!

Marooned

When all falls dark upon this world

the daylight lost to hardened night

our compass stuck within the void

our sails slip tattered and unfurled.

When even moon can’t guide our course

the clouds have swallowed all its light;

and waves are stilled to silent calm

our hope abandoned on the shoals.

When ink has robbed us of our sight

despondency infests our bones

we stave the dark to wait for dawn…

For in His light the shadows flee—

we mend the sails, reset our tack…

the soft warm breeze soothes like a balm;

we stem the tide to carry on.

© Ginny Brannan October 2013
Sharing @dVerse Open Link Night #118

C. Parant Sunrise, Wells, Maine Appetite for Photos (with permission)

Portal / Old Friends

Through portal of advancing mind

I wander back to days of youth,

still unsure what I hope to find.

Through portal of advancing mind,

the sharpest edges now refined

where make-believe stands with the truth.

Through portal of advancing mind,

I wander back to days of youth...

Old Friends

As each one speaks,

I watch the years fall away

through eyes that remember

the girls we once were.

Together again…

we pick up where we left off,

not missing a beat,

always moving forward.

It’s impossible to compress decades into verse

and a river of memories into words…

your friendships sustain me --

each a treasured pulse
inside this grateful heart.

©  Ginny Brannan April 2012

Sharing two, a Triolet and Free Verse of similar theme. 
Posting this at d'Verse Poets Pub Open Link Night Week #41