At Apollo 11 Landing Site, Poets on the Moon!
42 Anniversary of July 20, 1969 Landing
ROCHESTER, Mich., July 19, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- The Detroit News headline for Monday, July 21, 1969, reads, "Footprints on the Moon!" I can still vividly recall watching it happen on black and white TV, as a teenager, along with my family and the many millions around the world. It fired my young fifteen-year-old imagination like nothing else I had known. I had always been thrilled by the entire space program, my father having worked on making the heat shield for the re-entry capsule. And then the incredible event itself, in prime time TV, "one giant leap for mankind." I was there with the astronauts, walking on the moon.
For that day, my family saved the complete front-page section of The Detroit News. Eventually, it became my copy of the great event that dad and all the nation had worked for, the greatest technological achievement of human history. As the years went by, I found myself still thinking about our human visit to the moon, going back and re-reading that section of The Detroit News, as it has increasingly yellowed and brittled and frayed. The writer of the front page article made one revealing comment which he seemed to think everyone would understand and agree with: "It was not necessary to send poets to the moon." What? Who did that reporter think he was? The arrogance of science resonated in his claim. Poets have been on the moon for millennia.
I am writing to let your readers know that I have corrected that error! I have written an epic poem, The Parliament of Poets, that takes place partly on the moon, at the Apollo 11 landing site, the Sea of Tranquility.
Apollo, the Greek god of poetry, calls all the poets of the nations, ancient and modern, East and West, to assemble on the moon to consult on the meaning of modern life, and to correct the misunderstanding reported by The Detroit News. Poets are needed on the moon. And I have the epic poem to prove it!
All the great poets appear at the Apollo landing site in the Sea of Tranquility: Homer and Virgil from Greek and Roman civilization; Dante, Spenser, and Milton hail from the Judeo-Christian West; Rumi, Attar, and Hafez step forward from Islam; Du Fu and Li Po, Basho and Zeami, step forth from China and Japan; the poets of the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana meet on that plain; griots from Africa; shamans from Indonesia and Australia; Emily Dickinson, Murasaki Shikibu, and Jane Austen, poets and seers of all ages, bards, troubadours, and minstrels, major and minor, hail across the halls of time and space. One of the major themes is the power of women and the female spirit across cultures.
In the manner of Charles Dickens and other 19th Century writers, all twelve chapters of The Parliament of Poets are being serialized this summer, one chapter a week, at the publisher's website. Chapter 1 is a free download at books.fglaysher.com
It's time to correct the historical record!
Respectfully yours,
Frederick Glaysher
Poet of the Moon
Earthrise Press® eBooks
5224 Aintree Road
Rochester, MI 48306
248-652-4982
http://books.fglaysher.com
[email protected]
Media Contact: Frederick Glaysher Earthrise Press, 248-652-4982, [email protected]
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SOURCE Earthrise Press
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