By Kalpna Singh-Chitnis
Can poems serve as self-prophecies destined to be fulfilled?
लिखा है चाँद के माथे पे मेरा नाम उसने
अहसास अधूरा, सिफ़र तुम्हे क्यों हो?
It is my name that is etched on the moon’s forehead,
Why then should you feel waning, and waxing like zero?
These lines, from a poem I wrote in my early years, I have translated to share with everyone celebrating America’s historic Moon Landing after half a century.
Poems can serve as self-prophecies destined to be fulfilled. This poem, along with the title of my first poetry book “Patch of Moon,” stands as a humble testament to that.
My literary journey, which began with “चाँद का पैवंद” (“Chand Ka Paivand” or “Patch of Moon”), my first collection of poems written in Hindi in my teenage years, published in 1985, was destined to literally reach the moon someday, who could have imagined? Yet, now, it has become a reality, thanks to Samuel Peralta, a Physicist, Storyteller, Golden Globe Nominated & Emmy Winning Film Producer, and the Founder of Lunar Codex, who dared to dream of reaching the moon and sharing this dream with artists, authors, musicians, and filmmakers he admired.
I extend my heartfelt congratulations to Samuel Peralta, SpaceX, NASA, and everyone involved in this historic mission. I also want to congratulate my fellow travelers, writers, poets, and artists across the globe, who have always been inspired by the moon and have now truly reached it. I’m honored and thrilled to be part of this extraordinary feat.
Journeying through space and time with Odysseus, my sequence poem “River of Songs” (Bare Soul, 2015), the recipient of the Naji Naaman Literary Prize (2017) officially landed on the Lunar South Pole on Thursday, February 22nd, at 6:23 p.m. ET. Watching the event live with my son Nirvana was a moment of unparalleled joy. The mission was launched by SpaceX from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on February 15, using a Falcon 9 rocket launcher, that took Odysseus to the moon at the speed of 4,000 miles per hour, which is 1,800 meters per second. What an odyssey!
My yet another creative endeavor, a poetry film, “River of Songs” will soon begin its expedition to the moon with the Codex Polaris Time Capsule to the Nobile Crater at the Lunar South Pole in November 2024 via SpaceX Falcon Heavy / MoonBox / NASA CLPS-TO-20A.
It is my name that is inscribed on the moon’s forehead,
Why then should you feel waning, and waxing like zer
What more could a poet desire? Perhaps our children, the next generation of scientists, leaders, and peace pioneers, will further this legacy.
