Ian Whiteley

Philae Shakes The Hand Of God

by Ian Whiteley

Wednesday 12th November 2014 7:53 pm

What is the etiquette
for shaking hands
with God?

His ancient skin
so cracked
and old.

We have travelled far
to penetrate
His hide.

The cold, dark cosmos
squeals with
indignation.

“Know your place,
you of greens
and blues”,

sing the disregarded
stars and
planets.

We pass through
the blazing tails
of comets.

We burn money
in plasmatic
fuels,

whooping with delight
at our pre-pubescent
fumbling -

and we cannot
heal a child
in Africa.

comet ebola god philae priorities rosetta space travel

◄ Wounded

A Tree In The Elephant's Graveyard ►

Comments

Cynthia Buell Thomas

Thu 20th Nov 2014 19:11

Creation and the Creationist Myth are entirely different. But the human effort in ancient times to try to understand the unknowable, using the language of poetic metaphor, is profoundly amazing in itself. I see no conflict between Science and Religion that wisdom cannot dispel.

Ian Whiteley

Thu 20th Nov 2014 12:07

Thanks for all your feedback guys - just a few thoughts from me on the valued and insightful comments - please don't see this as a knee jerk reaction, I'm just trying to clarify why I've written what I've written:
The image and poem do compliment each other in my honest opinion, and Graham actually hits the nail on the head - a man made object - penetrates a satellite and pokes god in the eye. A blunt metaphor, but - hey-ho.
The pay-off line is exactly what the poem is about, it's not an add-on - it's an integral part of the piece.
The poem is faintly praising man's achievement - just not in the right direction/field in my opinion - why would I want to counter-balance the argument more? I'm making the point that on THIS topic I feel the balance is wrong. Graham's criticism (soft emphasis) wouldn't be applied to Wordsworth, for instance, for not extolling the virtues of a tulip in his poem about daffodils ;-).
Anyway - that's enough of my 'case for the defence' I'm just happy people read this stuff and spend their precious time in providing feedback. Thanks once again

John Coopey

Thu 13th Nov 2014 21:41

Excellent post, Ian. I thought the final juxtapoistion of the African child worked.
Incidentally, I thought everyone knew how to shake hands with God. You get your kit off and wiggle fingers. Michelangelo took a photo of it for the Listerine Chapel.

Graham Sherwood

Thu 13th Nov 2014 13:35

Interesting title Ian.

Doesn't go with the poke in the eye picture though.

It's also an strange concept that landing on a comet is in some way aligned to meeting God as the very comet itself seems to dispel the creationism myth.

MCN: As to future escapades diverting collisions, we better hope that Bruce Willis lives to a ripe old age then.

Sadly I think the African child line looks a bit of an afterthought to bring us down to earth, damning the poem with feint praise. Be good to even up the achievement/failure of humanity a little more.

Always a good read though,

regards,

Graham

M.C. Newberry

Thu 13th Nov 2014 13:03

My nephew is over the moon (no pun intended)
as he was once part of the Logica logistics
working on the pre-launch requirements for
this tool of exploration. This is a truly
phenomenal achievement - with implications beyond its immediate purpose of assessing
the origins of the material of a comet.
It occurs to me that if a meteor is located heading on a catastrophic collision
course with Earth then we seem to have
taken a giant leap forward towards meeting
and removing such a threat.
As for Mankind's Earth-bound problems...they
seem to be assessed as global warming and
over-population. At least there is an
ongoing awareness of these and in the
meantime Nature takes no prisoners when it
comes to the human condition and failure to
use the brain in its defence.

Laura Taylor

Thu 13th Nov 2014 11:09

Aye - love this. Totally take your idea that we can't fix our own problems down here, but the idea of space travel, the mindbending logistics of getting this to actually work - well, I confess I welled up when it landed.

Great poem.

Cynthia Buell Thomas

Wed 12th Nov 2014 20:23

Splendid - just plain splendid - brilliantly topical and timely.

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