A Space Odyssey Poem by Valsa George

A Space Odyssey

Rating: 4.9


Outside, the night was gathering strength
How swift our lightning Sputnik,
Out running the speed of sound and light
Shot into space with a violent jerk

At a distance were luminous spheres
Suspended like glowing lanterns
Comets and meteors in hyper space
Seemed more like diffused patterns

An asteroid came whizzing towards us.
I closed my eyes in dreadful shock,
Fearing a terrible head on collision.
Thank God! It deviated from our track!

I looked at my friend seated beside
Obviously not here, lost in thought!
Looking down, I saw Mother Earth
A luminous ball, not bigger than a sapphire dot

Oh! How quickly we landed on Mars
It is so different from what I had learnt
Neither a barren belt of sterile terrain
Nor a rugged stretch of craters burnt

But a heavenly place so cool and serene
Full of scintillating scenes and ravishing sights
We, the emissaries from a far away land
Were warmly received by a team of alien sprites

The weight of the world suddenly lifted from us
We bounced up and down almost floating in the air
Found ourselves in a gorgeous garden
With springing fountains and blossoms fair

Trees were laden with dazzling gems
Lagoons and lakes of liquid silver
Vast expanse of tawny vistas
Plains waving with luxuriant verdure

What fun…! Hmm…over there,
A herd of animals so strange and rare
Nothing like those seen on planet Earth
Grazing on red grass in a canyon of great width

Our restless eyes scanning all around
We were eager to explore every bit of ground
Accelerating our pace in rising delight
We moved forward with enthusiastic gait

Sudden was the sound I heard behind
Puzzled and confused I looked around
And saw my mother standing near
Her harsh words ringing clear

"You lazy one, know this is exam time
Again you can't play a dumb mime"
Blunt and curt was her angry tirade
Making my afternoon reverie suddenly fade

I saw my open book sneering at me
And my uncovered syllabus, a vast sea!

Saturday, October 19, 2013
Topic(s) of this poem: fantasy
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Dinesan Madathil 20 October 2013

An excellent experience into and with that infinite space! I wonder as to how you could think of a flight of the sort. It is refreshing to note that the rumours of a probable martial life are replaced here by the teeming of an enviable fauna and flora against the backdrop of serenity abundant! I am not afraid Madam Valsa has begun to be on a mission of liberating herself from the mundane affairs of the routine life on the Earth. This poem deserves an emphatic 10

1 0 Reply
Danny Draper 20 October 2013

Escapism is its own reward and here it was a creative and inventive imagining. Well done, great ending.

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Aneesha Roy 20 October 2013

A cute little nugget of sweet liberation, which is bewitchingly brilliant as long as it lasts. The cathartic odyssey plunging headlong into the realistic climax restores the quotidian ennui of normalcy and ordinariness, underlying subtly how every odyssey has an end and sometimes a rather abrupt one. However that doesn't make the reverie any less fulfilling or relevant and the savour of liberation is not lost. A very good read.

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Ibnu Din Assingkiri 22 October 2013

I remember those days (primary school) my mother used to splash water to my face. If I open a school books, it would only last 5 minutes....zzzzzz. :) thanks for sharing this great piece. :)

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Jasbir Chatterjee 27 October 2013

Nice poem...Poets have this wonderful ability to escape their ordinary lives through their dreams and fancies...as I did in my poem, The Delhi Metro.

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Kumarmani Mahakul 08 April 2019

An asteroid came whizzing towards us. I closed my eyes in dreadful shock, Fearing a terrible head on collision. Thank God! It deviated from our track! ........touching expression, marcy of God is great. This poem 'A Space Odyssey' is so movingly and astutely delineated. It is really a brilliant work. Thanks a lot.

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Indira Renganathan 07 February 2019

Thank God, your mother woke you up....otherwise how would it be if you had developed a mind not to return to earth.. indeed an interesting poem 10++++

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Akhtar Jawad 15 December 2014

A poem of nice and great imaginations......................10

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Padmanabhan Ananth 07 January 2014

Fantastic Valsa. So well written. Such vivid imagination. Kudos!

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Patricia Grantham 30 October 2013

Wow Valsa this poem was written with such force and imagination. I may have thought about how life would be on another planet but I have never considered that it could be so wonderful as you have so explicitly expressed it. Your mother quickly brought you back to earth out of your dream world to the real world of books and studying. Welcome back! I had a good laugh and really enjoyed your write. Very imaginative.

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