SAVING THE WORLD’S COSMOPOETRY -
BOOK II of
COSMOPOETRY DIARY IN THE PANDEMIC
CHAPTER I (episodes 1-20)
Design: Florin Alexandru Stancu
1
THE FIRST SUNSET IN 2021
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Many Bucharestians in the Youth Park
enjoyed the magic of the first sunset in 2021
as heavenly alchemy.
Maybe in the future
some of them will also love
the magic of astronomy…
2
MORNING MOON
(Bucharest, January 2, 2021)
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
On the Sun’s road I
saw the Moon visiting an
astro-cupola
3
NEW BEGINNING OF “US AND THE SKY”
Haiku by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe,
collages by Valentin Grigore
To honor
predictable stars and unpredictable
sky accents…
4
DELTA SUNRISE TRILOGY (1 - Camy 3 Vision)
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Hello all.
I am Camy 3,
a camera that my owner uses especially for night photos.
On January 2, 2021
I gave him inspiration for an expedition
to the Bucharest (Vacaresti) Delta
in which my mission was to catch the three heavenly bodies
(Venus, the Moon and the Sun)
that are reproduced on the Romanian coat of arms.
The surprise of the expedition was the fog,
which gave a spectacular parallel show.
Certainly, I can do much more,
but my owner is so fearful
that he avoids to take pictures all night long.
5
DELTA SUNRISE TRILOGY (2 - Camy 2 Vision)
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Hello all.
I am Camy 2,
a camera that my owner uses especially for day photos.
On January 2, 2021
I gave him inspiration for an expedition
to the Bucharest (Vacaresti) Delta
in which my mission was to catch, between the Moon and the Sun,
the three colors (blue, yellow and red) of the Romanian flag,
produced by Venus’ Belt.
The surprise of the expedition was the fog,
which gave a spectacular parallel show.
Certainly, I can do much more,
but my owner is so idiotic
that he avoids to take pictures all day long.
6
DELTA SUNRISE TRILOGY (3 - Andrei’s Vision)
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Hello all.
I am Andrei,
the owner of Camy 2 and Camy 3,
two cameras which I use especially for urban pictures.
In astronomy,
the Moon is the natural satellite of the Earth,
which is a satellite of the Sun.
In poetry,
the Moon is the queen of the night
and the Sun is the king of the day.
In Romanian mythology,
the Moon is the sister of the Sun,
but the sky law says that they can never meet.
On January 2, 2021, however,
after the Sun rose from the horizon,
I saw his reflections knocking on a block
at the western edge of the Bucharest (Vacaresti) Delta
and convincing the Moon to come down.
Then the Moon metamorphosed into a beautiful girl
and went east to a modern palace,
vertiginously crossing that urban delta
and disappearing into the fog.
And I will never know
if she could really meet her brother
or she was swallowed by the Sun’s brightness.
7
ON THE BRIDGE
(Bucharest, January 2, 2021)
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Bridges are useful
and quite interesting when they
are used by the Sun
8
MOON AND SUN
(Bucharest, January 3, 2021)
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Rivalry of lights
rivalry of auras
rivalry of clouds
9
END OF HOLIDAYS 2021
(Bucharest, January 2021)
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
On January 2, 2021
the Moon suggested me
to enjoy the lights of holidays in an imaginative way.
So… I rode shooting stars
and saw
a double star,
a belt of asteroids,
a star cluster,
a nebula,
a blue exoplanet near its star…
Not in the least,
I was on Jupiter and could see
the Sun
shining for me.
10
MARS AND GALAXIES
Astro-photo-poem by Valentin Grigore
Flowers (in my garden)
and snowflakes (in the city)…
Mars in the solar system
and galaxies in Pisces and Aries…
…worlds without stress…
11
AFTER A SNOWFALL
(Bucharest, January 2021)
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
After a few days with rare appearances of the Sun,
the first snowfall in 2021 (January 11)
threw me into hibernation.
Suddenly, on January 14
the Sun woke me up through the window.
I wanted to check a possible tangent arc
and went outside my block, but there…
I had the feeling I was lost
among Saturn’s satellites:
terrible frost,
diminished Sun,
no tangent arc…
So… was I on Enceladus?
Or just on the frozen lake
of a park?
12
INDUSTRIES AND AESTHETICS
(Bucharest, January 2021)
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Industry is the essential and complex engine
that makes objects for civilization and progress,
including instruments for astronomy.
But on the other hand, used in excess and carelessly,
it puts in danger our planet,
being the main source of pollution.
One day I was in the Youth Park
and saw a little girl among doves to north
and, under the Sun, the highest elevation in South Romania (250 m) -
an industrial tower made by the former totalitarian regime
at the southern edge of Bucharest,
which made me thought of the colossal esthetic difference between
the buildings made in Royal Romania
and those built in the dictatorial times.
So I chose to photograph in the sunlight
a few artistic industrial buildings made before World War 2
in Southeast Central Bucharest, which today are
restaurants, art clubs, storages or simple ruins.
Did I say “in the sunlight”?
Yes, but here is also an old small tower
under the star Betelgeuse!
13
ANOTHER “ODEON”
Astro-photo-haibun by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Amazingly for me, on January 15, 2021
I noticed (again) that an ante-war administrative building
for a small industrial platform
has become a palace for events after 1990.
Odeon Palace
industry turned into art
music of sunrays
14
FROM SUNSET TO SUNRISE
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
On January 5-6, 2021
I spent a few interesting hours trying to understand
why my ancestors put the Sun, the Moon
and the brightest star (usually, the planet Venus)
on their coat of arms…
I could find only a simple answer:
because they are sublime!
15
GRAVITY, GRAVITY…
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Space rock music has always been an excellent friend
to astronomy and science fiction.
Inspired by cosmic flight missions (which started in the 1960s),
composers, bands and performers of this gender (too many to be listed here)
have kept the interest of a large public to “the queen of sciences”
through their special music and lyrics about the Universe.
Unfortunately, Romania lived an immense tragedy
when the members of a rock band, “Goodbye to Gravity”,
died in a terrible fire (along with 60 spectators)
during a concert in the Collective Club in 2015.
On January 15, 2021
a solar reflection in the Dambovita River
(named after the wife of the legendary founder of Bucharest - Bucuresti,
shepherd Bucur) )
made me turn to the Sun, who showed me the way to the place of that tragedy:
the largest factory of skin products in Southeast Europe before World War 2,
which was also used and expanded by the totalitarian regime
and abandoned after the anticommunist revolution (1989),
but which still housed a cultural club until the accident.
The fatal building is placed in the Bucur Square,
next to the Bucur Maternity (made in art deco style in the 1930s,
it also houses today a medical clinic of
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem),
where a commemorative monument was erected soon after that tragedy.
In 2020 the victims were also commemorated by a survivor,
architect Alex Penescu,
who composed the music and lyrics
(”Collective soul going to sing to the stars…” and
“their music will gravitate everywhere to be heard in stars”)
of a song he performed together with a few important Romanian rock instrumentalists.
After I meditated about
“Goodbye to Gravity” and friends,
I returned home,
and, through my window,
the Moon said again:
“Welcome to Gravity!”
16
THREE LUNAR HYPOSTASES
Astro-photo-poem by Valentin Grigore
January variations:
the Moon in the beginning
of the new year,
the growing young Moon
must go to sleep early and…
the 21st year in the 21st century,
at 21:21 PM…
(Close encounters of the 21st kind?)
17
CAVAFU’S COSMOS
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
On January 23, 2021
a discreet lunar halo and a variety of lunar crowns
made me walk through my neighborhood
two hours before the (pandemic) night quarantine.
I stopped in front of the oldest building,
a church made in 1815 by the local expert in footwear,
Manu Cavafu (the Condonnier)
where I sadly smiled:
the artwork above the doors,
representing the Holy Trinity under the starry sky,
seemed to anticipate that today
we cannot see more than a few stars in Bucharest
because of light pollution.
But when I returned home
I saw lunar dust on my shoes.
18
ON AN INDUSTRIAL STREET
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Once I walked on a remnant of Royal Romania
at the edge of my semi-central neighborhood,
a former industrial street (to the Dambovita River)
which divides a former industrial platform.
But on a small bridge over the Bucharestian river
I looked back and…
I was lost in time between
two improvisations with wall decorations on those old buildings:
an oriental café with an “Arabian” medieval sun,
and an “occidental” gastro (not astro!) bar with a “futurist” western sun
(over a town with bird-planes).
“Be quiet and come back home,”
said the Great Sun to me
from the middle of the former industrial street,
“it’s 16:29 PM, January 15, 2021.”
19
JANUARY 21, 2021
Astro-photo-haiku by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
In old Bucharest
the house of a proud lion.
Hello, Regulus!
20
THE STATUE OF A DACIANMAN
(Bucharest, January 21, 2021)
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Captive in my town because of a pandemic,
I am a descendant of the ancient Geto-Dacians
whose fireball-dragon confronted
the constellated Roman Aquila,
so I ask you,
solar god Zamolxis
and lunar goddess Bendis:
When do you give me more power
To see a meteor shower?
HOME NEXT