RETURN OF CHAMPIONS -
COSMOPOETRY TOURNAMENTS
FOR GLOBAL ASTRONOMY MONTH 2021 -
BOOK IV of
COSMOPOETRY DIARY IN THE PANDEMIC
EPILOGUE (episodes 145-150)

Comments and English translations from Romanian by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Design: Florin Alexandru Stancu

After GAM 2021
Valentin Grigore, Florin Alexandru Stancu and I thought of an epilogue
which could include the planets Mercury
and Venus (returned as the Evening Star).
May 2021 was the month in which, due to the anti-covid vaccines,
the number of new cases of contaminated people significantly decreased…

145

HUNTING THE PLANET MERCURY IN BUCHAREST
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

May 2-4, 2021…
Maybe I should photograph the three heavenly bodies
which are reproduced on the Romanian coat of arms:
the Sun, the Moon and the brightest star (usually the planet Venus).

So… the Morning Moon,
the Haloed Sun, some colored clouds,
a visit to a small square with Arcturus and Capella
between the statues of the military heroes and…
I never imagined before I could use the planet Mercury
as “that star”!





















146

HUNTING THE PLANET MERCURY IN DAMBOVITA COUNTY
Astro-photo-poem by Valentin Grigore

I. EXPEDITION TO RUNCU STONE
(May 4-5, 2021)

As a civilized evening planet,
Mercury waited for the Pleiades’ appearance
in the pastel twilight…

…Arcturus with a crown,
through the telescope…

…Dust, not of stars,
but illuminated by the Sun’s light..

…Mars and deep sky objects…

…The Moon lightening from a cloud,
Jupiter above and Saturn on the right,
nice mornings at the beginning of May.











II. EXPEDITION TO THE DEALU MONASTERY
(May 11-12, 2021)

Sign of victory!
Rising to the light!
A nova among nebulae and clusters of stars!







III. SOURCES OF LIGHT
(May 7-21, 2021)

Sources of light!

…Jupiter and Saturn,
a morning embrace.

…The Young Moon and Mercury,
an evening embrace.

…The Young Moon of May!

…And Mercury…











147

EPILOGUE TOURNAMENT WITH IULIAN OLARU

One day in May 2021
the former multiple national astrohaiku laureate called me by phone
and told me that he was in the hospital, touched by Covid 19.
Fortunately, he passed over the critical state
and sent me two haikus by email.

It’s not over yet, I said.
So take care, people from anywhere…

FROM THE HOSPITAL
By Iulian Olaru

Under the splashes
Trembling oak branches
Longing for summer

Purifiers
From the sky on the leaves
Lights and water

OPTIMISTIC FOGBOW
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

Sky rain seeming to
banish pandemic from our
bodies and souls













148

THANK YOU, NEIGHBORHOOD FRIENDS!
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

On May 23, 2021
a solar reflection pushed me to my youth neighborhood in Central Bucharest,
at the foot of my childhood block,
where I spent a few hours under the Moon with my old friends
“Engineer Sache” and Marian.

And I understood that, along with SARM and Astronomers Without Borders,
they have created a podium of those who have enlightened my life
in the pandemic…
under heavenly sovereignty!























149

HUNTING THE “EVENING STAR” IN DAMBOVITA COUNTY
(May 21-29, 2021)
Astro-photo-poem by Valentin Grigore

First,
Venus through the rain, in the evening.
Then,
the astronauts on the International Space Station
greeting Nova Cas 2021!

A still unfulfilled moon on a blue sea,
a sunset with lake and gushing fountain,
the Evening Star again - a still timid presence in the sky -,
the urban moon floating above the Belt of Venus

and the two interior planets, Mercury and Venus,
a grace conjunction meeting.















150

HUNTING THE “EVENING STAR” IN BUCHAREST
(May 18-29, 2021)
Astro-photo-poem by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

Another month of flowers
and my hesitation with a happy end:

only after I caught the brightest heavenly bodies
(the Moon, the Sun and the planet Venus),
which are reproduced on the Romanian coat of arms,
I felt I deserved to thank Astronomers Without Borders
for (stronger than the pandemic)
Global Astronomy Month 2021!

















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