SCIENCE FICTION COSMOPOEMS takes you on a tour of the universe:

On the planet Koncereiva,
robots had replaced
reasoning creatures.

ASTROPOETICAL MINITREATISE is in two sections.
Part one is ASTROPOEMS:

The sons of the abysses
are picking stars
from the bottom of the seas.

Part two is ASTROPROVERBS:

He who digs a black hole
will fall in it!

The third and final part of the booklet is called FANTASY COSMOPOEMS:

If we extract the square root
from a dream,
all that remains is
a touch of the universe.

Terrific imagery, bizarre thoughts, quite a strong sense of the truly cosmic.
I don't have a word of Romanian, but this comes over very well in English - all credit to translator Victor Chifelea.
A very few miss-spellings and the occasional awkward phrase, but that is a minor quibble.
It is all translated as free verse - I'd be interested to know whether it has that form in the original language.
The illustrations by Mircea Muresanu are very good.

Romania's cosmopoets, who draw on that country's long cultural tradition of using cosmic and astronomical themes in poetry, have established an active publishing program, despite difficult economic circumstances, as well as building strong links with professional and amateur astronomers, including taking part in and performing their poetry at astronomical conferences across Europe.
They've also been successful in linking with schools, and with performers in a variety of other arts, and last year established what is perhaps the world's first library specifically dedicated to such poetry.

From the 17th century, Romanian poets used the phenomena of sky and space in their work, often drawing on ancient folktales which gave comets, meteors and so on human or creature forms and relationships.
Such elements reappear as one feature of the work of the cosmopoets, alongside work nearer to the science poem as such, and other material that is pure science fiction.

In terms of form, as well as free verse and "rhymed-and-metred", particularly popular are haiku-form, and specifically Romanian, tipuritura, two line rhymed poems, each line 7 or 8 syllables, deriving originally from Maramures folksong.

The Romanian cosmopoets have a particular interest in combining poetry with other arts using astronomical themes, including providing lyrics for astromusic, from folk to electronic, texts for poetic dramas, serious and humorous, and developing combinations such as astroartpoetry and astrophotopoetry.
One of the leading Romanian cosmopoets, Dan Mitrut, for example, has provided lyrics for astropoetical dramas personifying
meteor phenomena as hunters etc.
As Andrei Dorian Gheorghe, probably the movement's most active organizer, puts it
"We try to realize a dynamic astropoetry,
and personifications of the heavenly bodies are important instruments for us" -
although it is worth noticing that his own collection, the extended sequence "Spaceman Sazartinus' Diary", as well as much poetry, also includes pure SF content.

The poets cooperate closely with the national astronomical society SARM (Societatea Astronomica Romana de Meteori / Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy) and the annual Cosmopoetry Festival, first held in 1996, forms part of SARM's "Perseide" national conference.
Gheorghe, moreover, is Assistant Editor-in-Chief of SARM's nationally distributed magazine Noi si Cerul - Us and the Sky -
which gives space to astropoetry in every issue.
SARM also supports the publication of a variety of anthologies of astropoetry Gheorghe edits, in Romanian and also in English translation.
(Other publications using astropoetry include Astronautica, nationally distributed but published from Carabella High School,
which has a long tradition of interest in rocketry and space.)
The first Cosmopoetry library of this group, inaugurated early '99, is based in the Admiral Vasile Urseanu Observatory in Bucharest, which also hosts regular astropoetry events.

As well as staging the National (now international) Cosmopoetry Festivals, reading astropoetry and performing poetic astrodramas etc. at a variety of events across Romania (they were particularly active during the August '99 eclipse gatherings), running competitions for young people to encourage wider involvement of a new generation in the genre, and appearing on Romanian radio's home and international broadcasts to talk about astropoetry, the group is also active internationally.
They have performed their poetry, poetic dramas, and music with astrolyrics at many events abroad, including, for four years in a row, annual conferences of the International Meteor Organization, in Germany, Holland, Slovakia, and Italy.

Here, then, are a group of genre poets, undaunted by their country's relative isolation and poverty, who are enthusiastically determined to reach out and find new audiences, new links, for their "cosmopoetry".

Andrei Dorian Gheorghe, Dan Mitrut and Calin Niculae,
three heroes of SARM's astro / cosmo-poetry movement
Photo: Stefan Calin

In 2001 August 16-19, the first Eurocon of the 3rd millennium was hosted by Romania, in a savage isle on the Danube River (named Atlantykron and placed near the antique fortress Capidava), the traditional place of the Romanian national SF camp for the last 10 years (the discoverer of this space and the main organizer being Sorin Repanovici).
In these conditions, the number of the participants was strictly limited at only 200 (in 1994, for instance, at other "Romanian" Eurocon, there were 800 participants), and those from other countries were not too many, but, among them, there were personalities like: Norman Spinrad (president of SFWA) and Bridget Wilkinson (president of SF European Association).
They came on a ship in the night, being awaited by "Dracula's witches" (in fact, some Romanian nice girls disguised significantly) with torches, and after that assaulted by admirers all the time.
Another special guest was the famous SF writer (and also a laureate of the SFPA) Joe Haldeman, and I was very happy to change a few words with him and to give him a few astropoetical materials edited by the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy-SARM.

The isle was full of tents and partly lightened by some phosphorescent strings.
However, the SF exhibitions were placed on two ferryboats.
There were a few places improvised for workshops, films, artistic and scientific presentations, and other workpapers:
-"the conference glade" (coordinated by the Romanian Complex Science Research Centre),
-"the astronomical corner" (coordinated by Planetarium Suceava),
-"the book temple" (coordinated by the Nemira Publishing House).

In this atmosphere, I tried to promote as much poetry as I could (with the moral support of the new leader of the Romanian National Youth Federation for Science Fiction-FNTSF, Traian Badulescu), in spite of many reservations regarding "the queen of arts" (available in Romania too) in the SF world.
In such a sense, I arranged (helped by Valentin Raican and Giorgica Lupchian) a SARM astroart exhibition, including photos, computer artworks and drawings, doubled by poems, and another stand with SARM publications.
I also presented a few video clips with astrofolk music by Dan Mitrut, and on August 17 at 16h 15m P.M. I presented at the "book temple" (in fact, a tent) the Romanian astropoetry movement and its connections to the international world of genre poetry, from which I read out some interesting messages for this Eurocon sent by some editors (leaders and personalities),
and short poems composed by them: John Francis Haines (editor of Handshake, U.K.), Florentin Smarandache (leader of Paradoxistic Literary Movement, U.S.A.), David Kopaska-Merkel (editor of Star*Line, U.S.A.), Giovanni Malito (editor of The Brobdingnagian Times, Ireland), Steve Sneyd (director of Hilltop Press, U.K.) and Gerald England (editor of New Hope International, U.K.).
I cannot hide my emotion and joy for doing it, and intend to publish all of them (messages and poems) on the October issue
of the Romanian electronic magazine Planet SF.
My regret is I couldn't recite verse by more Anglo-American authors, because time was too short.

The great moment of the SARM was conceived for August 17 in the night.
After a few other short artistic presentations, I read out my verses on the musical hymn of the event:

Hymn to the European Congress of Science Fiction - Capidava, Romania, August 2001

In the House of the Universe
Say: "It's mine!"
But, taking to the stars,
You must shine.

On Earth, you have parents,
Friends, children and a wife.
So, thinking of the future of the world,
You must love life.

Don't be scared of meeting aliens
Face to face!
Your robots protect you... Dream yourself
Traveling in space!

Science, Fiction, Fantasy, Art.
Through them, the light in not so far.
Be worthy of your condition,
Man, bit of a star!

(Andrei Dorian Gheorghe)

This Hymn was followed by an impressive fire of artifices lightening the whole isle and the Danube River, and after that we came back for presenting our show of astropoetic drama on Romanian electronic music, entitled Heavenly Bodies.

In many respects, this first SARM show (with the support of the Planetar SF Circle-Bucharest and Romanian National Youth Federation for SF) at a SF Convention was better than what we presented in the past, at astronomical events in foreign countries.
However, I remember how much enthusiasm our astropoetry performances provoked to people from the International Meteor Organization, International Astronomical Union and NASA (being appreciated as "fascinating" in 1999 in WGN, the Journal of the IMO).
But this time, at home, my return to the Romanian SF world was regarded with a real hostility by some of my important (SF) fellow countrymen, who hunted my possible mistakes and tried to destroy my "premiere".
Should I be flattered for this?
I know, "nobody is a prophet in his country", but I ask myself:
Is the world anywhere the same?

Finally, I'll replace any conclusion with the most "fantasy" of my astropoems recited at the "Romanian" Eurocon (using an English translation by Victor Chifelea):

SPACE MORGANA

I threw the lasso of the thought hunger
Into the luxurious, hallucinating twilight
Of the planet Rhyonda
To fish enthusiasm of dreams.

Not even the alertness of the talking flames
From Petax,
Not even the tumult of the thinking asteroids
From Sozaya
Tattooed my spirit like this unique trial.

In the illusion whirl,
I candidly accepted your slow, vague apparition
Deliberately betraying myself
Like a crippled child living the vision
Of an absolving run.

Your eyes, miniature stars,
Were sending ardent waves
Which indefinitely circled me,
Your hair
Flashed magic shades
And supreme sidereal sounds,
And your clothes
Were polycoloured hazes.

Hypnosis?

Turned to stone,
I accepted your unreal touch,
Tear of time,
Mystified subconscious,
Extreme criterion of anxiety.

(Andrei Dorian Gheorghe)