Earthrise

[In celebration of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the first manned lunar landing, I am re-posting some previous entries inspired by some of NASA's achievements. - CK]

Until the Apollo missions with NASA in the late 1960s and early 1970s, we had not seen the earth from the vantage point of space. We did not know how blue and beautiful we were from afar. For the first time, we saw an image of one earth. It was different from those world maps we had seen in geography textbooks, or the globes that sat in the classrooms. Those were contrived by artists and showed divisions, countries, and boundaries. For the first time, we saw through the astronaut’s lens a single, beautiful, living thing – a lovely oasis of life illuminated in the darkness of space. Though we did not feel it down on the ground, with all our conflicts and divisions, we could see it in that photo taken from the moon.

Even now, all these years later, it is difficult to realize what was seen so clearly from space. We are one planet, one people, one life, one earth. We indeed have a treasure to celebrate and preserve.



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Saturday Haiku: Poems from Space: Apollo 8

[In celebration of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the first manned lunar landing, I am re-posting some previous entries inspired by some of NASA's achievements. The Apollo 8 flight was the first time humans had orbited the moon. "Earthrise" is an iconic photo that was shot during that moon mission which inspired the haiku that I re-post today.]

Our first moon orbit;

we explored far reaches, yet

turning, saw ourselves.  

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Image: "Earthrise" (NASA photo)



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Saturday Haiku: Apollo 8

This week marked the 45th anniversary of the historic Apollo 8 flight which was the first time humans had orbited the moon. "Earthrise" is an iconic photo that was shot during that moon mission. NASA has a fascinating seven-minute video on YouTube commemorating that event and explaining how it was an accidental sighting and how the photo might otherwise never have been taken. I took the occasion of the anniversary of "Earthrise" to write this week's haiku. Typically, a haiku draws inspiration from nature. This one is indeed a natural setting, although a view not ordinarily seen.

               Apollo 8

     Our first moon orbit;

          we explored far reaches, yet

          turning, saw ourselves.

                                ~ CK

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