Planet poems
 

Hi,

I wrote this one recently in response to a prompt and I wondered whether anyone on the 'sphere would like to write some sort of planet poem.

It's intended as a rap (rhythm, cha-cha-CHING). The science might not be entirely accurate, but that might not matter to the N of course. I enjoyed writing it :-)


Pocket planet

Oy, stop pickin' on me. Yeh, I'm smallest of all
of the planets that circle our Sun
and I ain't very colourful -- 'Just a grey ball,'
you sniff, Venus; hey, thanks for that, hun.

Well, I might not be Jupiter, moony old chap;
I ain't Saturn, with all of his rings;
but I reckon I'd manage if we had a scrap –
I got rocks an' big ridges an' t'ings.

And besides, what is size if you're all full of gas?
You'd just burst if you ever came near,
an' that burst would leave... what? Not a great deal of mass.
I'd be biggest. Me, Merc. Are we clear?

A Message from the Second Planet

On Friday, astronomers announced a new paper laying out the case for the atmosphere of Venus as a possible niche for extraterrestrial microbial life. —EarthSky, March 31, 2018

We’re microbes in the clouds of Venus
of an otherworldly genus
gobbling CO2 and spitting
out sulfuric acid—fitting
for a life form that can waft
akin to an oceangoing craft
far above the rocks and soil
whose heat will make lead bullets boil.

We’re vitamin D3 gourmets,
drinking ultraviolet rays
as we have done for donkey’s years,
wild about the atmosphere’s
asphyxiating greenhouse gas,
so reflective that your glass
sees only jewel-like radiance.
You scientists are on the fence

on whether there is life on Venus,
but only ’cause you haven’t seen us
yet. And we don’t want you to,
for if you poke and probe, you’ll strew
our virgin world with noxious matter.
All tranquility will shatter.
Goggle at our planet. Stand
in distant awe. But please don’t land!

(Appeared in The New Verse News, Tuesday, April 3, 2018)

https://newversenews.blogspot.com/20...nd-planet.html

Thanks, Martin; very much enjoyed :-)

It would be great to get a collection of these, but I don't know whether many people are posting on D&A these days :-/

Thanks, Fliss. I enjoyed your poem very much. Though Mercury is now the smallest planet, it used to be Pluto before the poor little thing was demoted to dwarf planet status several years ago (as you know). I think it's interesting that the smallest planet now is the one closest to the sun, whereas it used to be the farthest from the sun!

In response to what you said about the lack of postings in D&A, I think there is more activity lately going on at The Oldie and The Speccie competitions.

I, too, think it would be cool to have a collection of planet poems.

By the way, Fliss, I think this line

'cos I got rocks an' ridges an' t'ings.

would read better as something like this:

'cos I've rocks an' huge ridges an' t'ings.

That's 'cos it's more natural to accent "rocks" than "got."
Anyway, I love the dialogue and the zippy anapests.

Thanks very much, Martin; yes, it's interesting about Pluto and 'Merc'.

The Speccie... do you mean The Spectator? My mum used to subscribe to that; I think she just reads the Literary Review nowadays. Recently she had a letter published in the latter, about bad word-breaks. Unfortunately, in the same issue I found 'Fontaineb-leau' :-/

Thanks for your suggestion re. line 8. What do you think of an en dash following 'scrap' and then 'I got rocks an' big ridges an' t'ings'? I'd like to keep 'I got rocks' as it reminds me of 'rocks that I got' (J-Lo). And thanks also for 'zippy' :-)

Hi Fliss,

Regarding the demotion of Pluto, Neil DeGrasse Tyson had a lot to do with it.

Yes, The Speccie is The Spectator. It's one of the categories (along with The Oldie) in D&A. It's nice that your mother got a letter published in Literary Review, and it's funny and ironic about 'Fontaineb-leau' in the same issue.

Here's one about Earth which, being the next planet after Venus, we would then have poems about Mercury, Venus, and Earth respectively.

Earth for Sale

We’ve just received our largest shipment ever of blue skies.
**Come check them out before you leave the system!
But if, instead of atmosphere, you crave a nice sunrise,
**we’ve got so many styles. In fact, I’ll list ’em:

The types from airborne particles or molecules of air,
**volcanic ash trapped in the troposphere
and cloud and Rayleigh scattering. We guarantee you’ll stare.
**That isn’t what you want? Then do not fear.

This planet sports so many things of interest and worth:
**countless kinds of animals and plants
and rocks containing jewels. You never know what you’ll unearth.
**You’ll long to live here after just one glance.

Too many folks, you say? You think this planet isn’t well?
**Just look around. Behold the majesty.
From Everest to Death Valley, this world has no parallel.
**Oh, please don’t go! We’ll give it to you free!

Here is another one about our planet. It appeared in LUPO (Lighten Up Online), Issue 53: March 2021.

I Came With Instructions

I came with instructions on how you may use me.
You’ve tossed them away and, instead, you abuse me
by tainting me, turning my thermostat higher,
and breeding like rodents. How different prior
to the entry of men! Dinos didn’t misuse me.

With your boats and your cars and your aircraft you cruise me.
My derma can’t take it. You constantly bruise me
with bulldozer, drill, excavator, or fire.
****I came with instructions.

You should know that your foolery doesn’t amuse me!
Though you don’t always see these events in the news—me?
I see clear as a hawk that your world will expire
if you don’t recognize that the score is now dire.
Your boss, Mother Earth, says, take steps or you’ll lose me.
****I came with instructions.

I reckon you want us to write new poems. But, though I wrote this one 14 years ago, at least it may (or may not) give you some amusement (which is, after all, the second word of "Drills & Amusements").

What Is a Planet?

What is a planet? No one seems to know.
They found this icy ball larger than Pluto
**way out on the back porch
of the solar system, orbiting as slow,
deliberate and unhurried as a pseudo-
**Olympic snail with torch.

This frozen mass, the heftiest one found
since 1846 circling the sun,
**swims amid the scraps
of the Kuiper Belt, the icy junk surround-
ing Neptune’s revolution; a vast ton
**of stuff all doing laps

like turtles in a relay round their star.
This hunk of ice and dust they had descried
**creeping nine billion miles
away from Sol, shines bright as a gold car
that glistens like a dazzling gem and glid-
**ing over domiciles

and trees and fields and lakes almost too high
for anyone to see; a toy balloon
**beyond the loftiest cloud;
a floater drifting across the jumbo eye
of the solar system like a distant moon
**that joined the comet crowd.

Its temperature would make a penguin freeze
in less time than it takes to say the word
**Antarctica. So bleak
on that small orb! You surely couldn’t sneeze,
for the place has no atmosphere. No bird
**would soar, no human speak.

Now, is this object planet, asteroid,
or something else? They’ve nicknamed the thing Xena.
**Yet Xena’s unaware,
nor would she care about the present void
in rubric in astronomy’s arena
**from which they stare and swear.

Thanks, Martin; this thread just gets better and better! Thanks very much for posting more planet poems.

I've read up on NdGT. I see he's written a book called The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet. I wonder what the UK's fave planet is. Probably Earth.

My mum worked in publishing for about 35 years, so she's pretty sharp. I don't seem to have access to the Oldie and Speccie categories.

You've had a lot of poems published; congrats on that. Sometimes I think of submitting things, but I usually end up feeling overwhelmed. Both new and old poems are welcome; I enjoyed reading all three of your latest posts here.

I tried Mars today. It was a bit of a rushed job in between work tasks, so I might spruce it up at some point. Apologies for the language, lol.


You wonder why I'm red. It's RAGE, you fools!
00Engage your brains (such small things though they be)
and ponder, if I came to you with tools
00to prod and poke, would you spin peacefully?
YE GODS! Since nineteen seventy-one
00I've tolerated landings on my arse,
and all your rampant rovings; aren't you done?
00For how much longer must I bear this farce?
Well, keep this up, perhaps I'll come to you!
00A million Martians summoned to explore
your troughs and pathways, all that green and blue
00and then you'll know the hardships I endure!
So, you've been warned. Now get out of my sight
or know in full the force of Martian might!

PLUTO'S COMPLAINT

Pluto's my name.
I have a complaint.
I once was a planet
but now I ain't.

I thought that you loved me.
But then came a snub.
One day you informed me
I'm out of the club.

It came as a shock.
I thought we were fine.
I held up my end
as the smallest of nine.

I never made trouble.
I quietly spun.
I never ran late
as I circled the Sun.

I truly believed
that we all got along.
I thought that you loved me.
I guess I was wrong.

Fliss, Your Mars poem engaged me! Seriously, I really enjoyed it.

Bob, your Pluto poem was fun to read.

This is not a new poem either (it appeared in The Martian Wave). But I'll work on a new planet poem soon.

The Mars Rovers

Rolling across the canyons and the plains,
inspecting clay and crater night and day,
robotically steered, they toil away
beneath red skies, past rocks with ruddy stains,
yet never weary or feel the slightest pains
in camera, wheel, or radio. Our May
is coming soon when we will dine and play
and work beyond Earth’s blizzards, droughts, and rains,
and say in homage as our starship leaves
this world for worlds that orbit distant suns,
toting our tales contained in a trillion sheaves,
further and further from Sol’s warming breath:
“Once ramblers, rattling on their dusty runs,
had searched for life so we could sidestep death.”

Deleted poem because I've submitted it to a journal.

This one could be about the hypothetical Planet Nine or perhaps an exoplanet.

Long-Distance Relationship

The planet takes nine hundred thousand years
to orbit the small orb that is her light.
Though practically free-floating, a loose bond
connects the couple. No refulgent spheres
ever visit. Never-ending night
engulfs that world of winter, far beyond
the mass of Jupiter—a giant’s giant.
In their long-distance dalliance, world and star
circumgyrate, aching to embrace.
Their tie is tenuous, a link reliant
on faith a sun won’t pass too near and jar
the planet into interstellar space.
Yet in the face of time’s eternal frost
they vow their love will never be star-crossed.

Thanks, Martin! I sent it to my older brother, who's a keen astronomer. He liked it too :-)

Roger/Bob, thanks for your poem. I think any poem that contains 'ain't' is a winner with me, lol. The tone is perfect for the snubbed Pluto, bless him.

Martin, thanks for three more additions. I'm really enjoying your contributions, and I feel I'm learning a lot too. Congrats on The Martian Wave. Yes, moons are fine; why not? I particularly like the 'One hundred gushing geysers' and rhymes such as 'Saturn' / 'pattern', 'caecilian' / 'vermilion'. And the romance of 'Long-Distance Relationship' is a delight, especially for 'star-crossed' at the end.

I used today's creative time to write a new poem for Met, but I shall try to fit in other planet poem soon :-)

That Spin I’m In

Although I didn’t plan it
I’m stuck on this old planet.
The third rock from the sun,
Away from it I’m spun.

Yup, that works perfectly! You got to keep "got," as it enhances the vernacular. The em dash is what I would have suggested, too. You're really good at emulating dialects. I wish I could do that. :)

Thanks, Martin! I've made that change. I like doing different dialects; I think Dizzee Rascal would work for Merc.

Ralph, great to have you on board. I like 'plan it' and 'planet', lol.

I finished a big work project earlier today, leaving a bit of time to write something for Jupiter. I think it might be a song, cha-cha-CHING. Voice: jovial elderly male.


World of Old Jove

Do you live on a planet that's bringing you down
00with its politics, power-play, war?
Do you frequently find that you're wearing a frown
00and, quite frankly, you're sick to your core?
Well, just send for a spaceship and shimmy along
00to the wonderful world of Old Jove,
with a Ho! ho-ho-ho and a bingetty-bong! –
00let's get gassily into the groove.

You'll be glad, beyond glad, that you shipped to my space;
00you'll have laughter and love without pills –
all you need's a sharp spacesuit to keep with the pace
00of the storms and the heat and the chills;
so come on! board that spaceship and shimmy along
00to the wonderful world of Old Jove,
with a Ho! ho-ho-ho and a bingetty-bong! –
00let's get gassily into the groove.

Ceres

Once I was a planet,
then an asteroid;
I’m now a dwarf world hurtling
across the frosty void.

Named after the grain goddess
of Rome, I roam around
the sun, yet I’m way dimmer
that Vesta, so you’re bound

to miss me. I’m much smaller
than Pluto or your moon;
yet, though I’m rather tiny,
it’s me who calls the tune

amid the motley muddle
of dust and rocks. I’m scrawny
compared to the gas giant
who’s kisser is as tawny

as the feathers of a frogmouth.
His gleam surpasses Sirius’.
Just like that star’s companion,
I’m mightily mysterious—

for I’m the only boulder
in all celestial rubble
who talks. And I am helpful.
If your spaceship is in trouble,

you can always make a landing
upon my icy hide
or hide inside a hollow.
You’ll be quite satisfied

with the view from my old body
(which exhales water vapor
when close to Sol’s refulgence).
We’ll frolic and we’ll caper

along this belt of wreckage.
We’ll frisk and prance and rollick
in a zone of lonely stones,
outcast and melancholic.

Then you may wet your whistle
on the water percolating
from beneath Occator crater.
Too salty? Not so sating?

It’s all I’ve got to offer.
I’m just an asteroid
(or maybe a dwarf planet)
tumbling through the void.

I love your Jupiter, Fliss. Of course, no astronaut could possibly survive Old Jove's magnetic field, which is ten times stronger than Earth's!

Speaking of wars, did you know (yes, it's true) that we have far fewer wars, famine, and plagues than in the whole history of homo sapiens? (Whatever plague comes now, it's not because we have sinned and the gods are punishing us but, because we now know what causes plagues, we can manage them. So all plagues nowadays are due to human stupidity, including the current one.) But are we happier than stone-age (actually wood-age) people? Maybe not.

A Family Holiday on the Red Planet

Enjoy a Luxe Vacation! said the sign.
The lakes are peerless, the vistas are divine.
The sky’s a lovely cinnamon, the strands
are neither hot nor cold, so make your plans.
The best part? You will get fantastic tans!

Mars, now terraformed, is quite the spot
for a family holiday!
No fear of losing muscle tone. We’ve got
artificial gravity rooms that dot
a land as grand as Martinique in May.

They’re dressed in Terra garb—a tasseled shawl
on the girl’s shoulders, a skirt
that matches the sand and sandals on her small
pink feet; a summer dress on mom; a shirt
symbolic of ancient tunes on dad. The doll

inside its Maya wrap is slumbering
against its father’s chest.
Inside its dreams it hears the sand dunes sing,
follows the billows as they drift and wing
en route to the copper skyline in the west.

Yes, there’s a city in the distance, first
of its kind on the clays of Mars.
It will not help them as they die of thirst.
Sand-bullets have already left deep scars
across defenseless skin like scimitars.

Nobody hears them wailing, sees them running,
their faces paling, though they have been sunning.
As sand grains fly, some large as creek rock gravel
(whose fault is it they caught the bug for travel?),
they feel their suntanned flesh start to unravel ...

Reposted this poem ("Sol Concealed") at #92.

Breakup

Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter
that will culminate in the closest approach
between the two planets in recorded history.

The thought unsettled me. I couldn’t rest.
An e-mail I’d read yesterday said Mars
would be spectacular. I quickly dressed,
walked out the door, stepped off the porch and — there,
there it hung, eclipsing all the stars
and looming large as the full moon! Through glare

I saw dark stains and the south polar cap,
great hollow places, valleys, peaks. At dawn
the daily paper, like a thunderclap,
announced enormous tidal flows had battered
every shoreline. Many towns were gone,
and even major coastal cities shattered.

The e-mail wasn’t just a story, then,
to fade like morning glories. On the fence
the morning glories drank the sun and, when
I looked at them, their blossoms seemed as blue
as ever, while that orb in the intense
warm rays of daylight drifted out of view.

While pondering how that planet could have spun
this close, I felt a tremor in the ground,
and knew there wasn’t anywhere to run.
And then a slap of memory as bright
as a bolide burst. I pretty nearly drowned
in the dazzle of your face in morning light

receding now, a pallid apparition
too far to knock the world out of position.

You need a password for the "Private" sites. This was done to avoid prior publication rules for competition entries. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to send it to you, but I'm sure that if you ask Jayne, she'll give it to you.

Well, this sizeable collection seems to be very nearly complete. Here's a quick squib for one that hasn't been done yet:

Now, let’s have no more jokes about my name;
Your smutty, childish humour frankly bores,
And proud Uranus has no cause for shame.
If you persist, I’ve this to say: “Up yours!”

Doomed Planets

The surface of Venus is hot enough
to melt lead. And I know I have not enough
cojones to visit that world
where perhaps giant ferns had unfurled
long ago in its youth in the spring
when tree frogs assembled to sing,
birds winging across the pure air ...
In the cosmos, it’s not all that rare
for a planet to turn into hell,
becoming extremely unwell
before it is barely a baby.
Can we save our own world? Maybe. Maybe.

Brian, Ann, welcome to the ship and thanks for your contributions, lol. And Brian, thanks for the info; I asked Jayne about the sites after Martin mentioned them and she gave me the password. I've just peeped in so far :-)

Martin, thanks for enjoying 'World of Old Jove'. I think Jove knows he's not going to get any visitors; he just fancied bursting into song.

Yes, a friend mentioned that things are relatively peaceful nowadays. I don't believe in gods. I do believe that the measure of happiness is tricky, to put it mildly. People often assume I must be miserable because I'm chronically ill.

Thanks for your latest poems on this thread; it's all great stuff. Are you singing in 'Doomed Planets'? I've just been swinging with Coleman (so to speak), so I'm in music mode. I used up my creative time on Flat today (very excited to have found it), but anyone else is welcome to take Neptune of course :-)

Gods are a fiction invented by humans. But it was useful for huge numbers of people to cooperate with each other. The most useful fiction that has ever been hatched by humans is money. You can’t eat, drink, or wear a dollar bill or a pound. And now most money is in the form of ones and zeros inside the brains of computers. Speaking about “happiness,” here’s the preamble from the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness ...

Yuval Noah Harari rewrites it as:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men evolved differently, that they are born with certain mutable characteristics, and that among these are life and the pursuit of pleasure.

A Darwinist Deconstructs the Declaration of Independence

https://evolutionnews.org/2019/05/a-...-independence/

I’ve been listening to various chapters of the audiobook of Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, as well as some parts of Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.

I sure am!

Now that you have the password for Deep Drills, Fliss, I look forward to seeing you there!

I can't contribute anything to your planet poems... the nearest thing I ever wrote was a sonnet in praise of the sky at night... not specific enough, and not amusing, either.

Jayne

Fliss, I'm sorry to learn that you are chronically ill. It makes a difference in what you need. Be as well as you can.

I'm sorry too. I was going to say that sooner, but Allen beat me to it.

Thanks, chaps. I've had psoriatic arthritis and other things for over thirty years, so I'm used to all that. I need to keep busy, and I've been able to return to full-time employment, which is great :-)

Thanks also to Jayne for enjoying the thread. I'll peep into Deep Drills again soon. Your sonnet sounds interesting; I'd like to read it sometime.

Martin, I think it might be possible to eat/drink/wear notes and coinage, but I take your point, lol.

Truths are slippery things. My mascot Word-Bird and I prefer 'human beings' to 'men' :>)

You're singing! That's excellent. Are you a composer as well as a poet?

Here is a quick read for Neptune:


Arrayed in beaut'ous broody blue,
I seem mysterious to you,
oh Earthlings of the probes and prods
intent on knowledge, nosy sods.

By all means fly by, sneak a peek –
come every month, or every week;
you'll never land upon my shores –
there'll be no walky-talky tours.

And I am glad. Yes, glad, I say;
I'm happy just to spin my way
around the Sun and play my tunes,
accompanied by bands of moons.

I'm very sorry to hear that, Fliss.

There is, of course, Holst's splendid 'Planets' suite, from which the lovely tune in the central section of Jupiter was used as the much-maligned hymn 'I vow to thee, my country'. I say 'much-maligned' because the opening words have led to accusations of jingoism, which I think are unjust. The last two lines in particular are quite touching, and nothing to do with patriotism:

"And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace."

Anyway, I don’t see why Jupiter shouldn’t have his own little song to the same tune:

I am Jupiter, the greatest world, fifth planet from the Sun,
And my days are just a constant round of jollity and fun.
But my neighbour, surly Saturn, can’t appreciate my larks;
Though I’m bigger than him, he keeps making snide remarks.
Yes, the little blighter sneers at me, and mumbles wounding things,
Such as “Size don’t ’ardly matter, mate, what counts is ’aving rings!”

Yes, Fliss, "human beings" is definitely better than "men." I'm surprised that Harari didn't do that.

I enjoyed your Neptune. And Brian's Jupiter is clever. I was actually going to mention The Planets. That's one of my favorite pieces and I've played it numerous times with the orchestra. Yes, I used to compose quite a bit and have had several pieces published. Lately, it's poetry.

Brian, I've never heard the words to "I vow to thee, my country," but that melody is marvelous. It's OK to love one's country, but not OK to hate other countries. A "country" is really a fiction made up by us humans. It works, however, to get thousands or millions of people (most of them total strangers to each other) to cooperate. But global cooperation is now needed to combat climate change, deal with or manage AI, biotech, and prevent nuclear war.

Fliss, do you play an instrument? Write songs? I'm curious since you mentioned singing and swinging, and Ornette Coleman.

Thanks, Brian. And thanks v. much for your poem. I've been listening to Holst's suite while proofreading references for work. I like 'Mars' and 'Jupiter' best. The song you provide for Jupiter is excellent; I love 'blighter' and ''aving rings' :-)

Thanks, Martin, for enjoying Neptune. The Planets is pretty cool; which one is your favourite? It must have been exciting to play with the orchestra, especially Mars.

I'm unable to play any instruments now, due to the progression of arthritis. During school days I played descant recorder (Grade 6), piano (Grade 7), clarinet (Grade 8). By 'Coleman', I meant Coleman Glenn, who has recently posted a swing-inspired piece on the Met board here. I write lyrics and I've started using Flat, although I'm a bit rusty with composition (I have A-level Music, but nothing higher than that).

Much inspired by these musical musings, I think I might start a new music-themed prompt thread now, but this one can keep running, of course :-)

Best wishes,
Fliss

Hi Fliss,

That's a pretty good assortment of instruments you played. I'm sorry your condition has interfered with your ability to play them now. I'll check out Coleman's poem. Thanks for letting me know about it.

I like all seven of the movements of The Planets. I have played snare drum, xylophone, glockenspiel, chimes, and other percussion instruments in that piece. Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus are the most exciting and have the most fun and challenging parts for those instruments. But I also love Saturn for its suspensefully melancholy feeling in the first half followed by an ecstatic and blissful sort of calm in the second half.

I used the Finale music-writing program for many years. But I prefer writing by hand. The program took a lot of time to learn and it was way too time-consuming to write music with (in the time it took me to notate a single measure, I could have written literally one or two whole pages by hand on music paper!) so, eventually, I got tired of it. Also, I haven’t upgraded my software, so can’t open any of my many music files. I might have to bite the bullet and pay to upgrade. :eek:

I didn’t know about Flat. Thanks for mentioning it. It’s great that you write lyrics! If you start that music-themed thread, I may participate.

Mercury

I have a tail. It’s like a comet’s. Oh,
you didn’t know? It’s made of sodium.
Sol’s light and micrometeoroids succumb
to my allure. They bump me and I blow

those salty atoms from my shattered rocks
into my exosphere—as incorporeal
as the auroras high above your boreal
forests—or into space in coats and socks

(it’s cold out there!) But sodium feels friendless,
so many elements make up my tail
which, though it’s rather nebulous and pale,
is a hundred times Earth’s width—practically endless.

Look up and see its splendor, orange-yellow.
With long exposures free of buildings, trees,
and hills around, my striking trail will please
your camera. I’m a photogenic fellow!

Both Venus and your moon have tails—that’s right—
but not as grand or lovely as is mine!
Planets with tails of sodium that shine?
What other oddities lurk in the night?

Thanks, Martin. Yes, take a look at Coleman's poem; it's good :-)

I wish I could play percussion. One summer at Dartington I made a friend in a percussionist, Jess, and I remember watching her and thinking her section seemed a lot more exciting than woodwind. I think I'll have to listen to Saturn again.

I haven't heard of Finale. I've used MuseScore, and I tried Sibelius a long time ago; I think Dad might still use it, not sure. I recommend Flat; I find it quite quick, but I expect you write quickly by hand. I see you've found the music thread; excellent.

I enjoyed your poem about Mercury. 'No, I didn't know,' I respond to the question. I like 'photogenic fellow'; it reminds me of my latest guinea pig model, lol. I don't know what other oddities are lurking out there. There must be loads of stuff we haven't discovered yet and probably never will :-)