Poetry Challenge #190-Lift Off!
It’s National Astronaut Day! Why May 5th? On this day in 1961, “Astronaut Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. became the first American in space aboard the Freedom 7 Space Capsule. Shepard’s “brief suborbital flight, which lasted 15 minutes and reached a height of 116 miles into the atmosphere,” came in the wake of Cosmonaut Yuri Gargain’s flight orbiting Earth (April 12, 1961). Less than three-weeks later, on May 25th, Pres. JF Kennedy challenged the US to send a man to the moon. The Space Race was on!
Eight years later on July 20th of 1969, only 12 years after Sputnik blasted off, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. And now, more than 50 years later, only 10 other men, from 3 countries, have been to the moon. 65 Women have been sent to space, and we’ve set our sights on Mars…or beyond! The only limits are our imaginations!
At least 10 Astronauts, 2 Cosmonauts & current candidates attended Space Camp as kids. Here’s more!
Poetry Challenge #190
Lift Off!
Imagine yourself an astronaut. With current technology it’s estimated that a trip to Mars would take between 5 and 8 months. What would you do? Think? Feel mid-flight? When you peered out the windows, would you look back? Or forward?
As there’s no gravity in space, it seems fitting to write in free verse. Free Verse poetry does not follow a set rhythm or rhyme scheme, but it does employ literary devices.
Prepare for Lift off!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
3-2-1-BLAST OFF!
National Astronaut Day Playlist:
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 4 years ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
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