Our Lucky Outpost

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Sarah Grace Tuttle, Here. Thank you, Sarah, for hosting! Be sure to stop by to see what she has for us this week.

I was browsing in a book store today and saw a book I already own by Bill Bryson, “A Short History of Nearly Everything.” I had used this book in a previous post on supernovae HERE. I sat with a coffee and read a chapter entitled “Lonely Planet,” that begins:

"It isn't easy being an organism. In the whole universe, as far as we yet know, there is only one place, an inconspicuous outpost of the Milky Way called Earth, that will sustain you, and even it can be pretty grudging." Bill Bryson p. 239

Lucky circumstances make it possible for us to be alive and thrive on Earth. Importantly, we are just the right location from the sun. Any closer, we’d burn up. Any farther we’d freeze.

Earth also has the right elements, such as oxygen, sodium, potassium, iron, and many others that we need to survive.

Our molten liquid interior apparently is a big plus. First, it helped produce the gasses in our precious atmosphere and it creates a magnetic field that protects us from cosmic radiation.

Our large moon, a quarter of the diameter compared to Earth, in it’s close proximity keeps Earth from “wobbling like a top.”

The perfection we see all around us in nature is the result of all the above fortunate happenings.

I have been writing a series of Villanelles to become more familiar with the form. So here’s one inspired by Bill Bryson and Planet Earth. 

A PERFECT PLACE

Earth has been perfect place,
not too cold, not too hot,
because of where we spin in space.

Mars next door is a frozen waste,
and Venus is a fiery dot,
but Earth became a perfect place.

It's possible we could be outpaced
by "others" who gave life a shot
outside this place we spin in space,  

but so far we haven't found a trace
of oxygen in a temperate spot,
in another leafy perfect place. 

Celebrate! Embrace!
Luckier to be alive than not,
to think and feel and spin in space.

Oh, we could use a brilliant plot,
a failsafe way to save the race.
The Earth has been a perfect place,
because of where we spin in space. 

© Janice Scully 2022

The planet Venus

Thank you Sarah for hosting. Have a great weekend everyone.

16 thoughts on “Our Lucky Outpost”

  1. Thanks so much for sharing Janice! I really love your last two lines “The Earth has been a perfect place / because of where we spin in space.” The “has been” leads me down so many different paths of thought… climate change, the slightly faster rotation of the planet… I wonder how much longer it will be a “perfect place. “

  2. Oh I love Bill Bryson, especially this book, which I now want to go and reread. Thank you for the reminder.
    And what a wonderful homage to the book – and to our earth ‘spinning in space’ . Your message is perfect.

  3. Janice, what I enjoy about Poetry Friday is the sharing of information, title, authors, and ideas. You covered all of this in your villanelle. I have not tried that format but am interested in doing so. I hope autumn in Syracuse is as beautiful as I remembered it.

  4. An interesting post — loved learning more about our earth and reading your poem. By lucky happenstance, we’re lucky our planet became the perfect place to sustain life as we know it.

  6. I love this poem! Can I share it with students? I’d love to do that! I could not get to your blog last week–so sorry. I’m going to head to last week’s post after I comment here. I love how you make a light-hearted poem in tone…but also real to the science. It’s truly a great way to get young people to think about just the right conditions for life on earth. I hope some would take the next step and be appreciative…I know I am glad for this chance at life 🙂

    1. Of course you can use my poem! I’m glad you like it and want to share it. It is fun exploring science this way.

  7. Woohoo! What a huge topic in a villanelle :>) Your line, “The Earth has been a perfect place,” feels melancholy with that past tense. Sigh. We aren’t taking good enough care of it! Thanks for sharing, Janice. I have a poem in And Then There Were Eight about how the sun is just right–any closer and we’d burn up, any farther and we’d freeze. It’s such a poetic topic, right?!

  8. Hello Janice! This book is one I must read. I understand from what you have written that it can be more scholarly but that is ok. I think it is always good to have resources. Villanelles are tough but I think once you do them a bunch you can start to get ones you like. And your beautiful musing on our earth and what it offers us. Offers being the operative word today. Would that our magic wands or words or poems could reach all of us to help us do better, be better, care more on so many levels. Bravo for a lovely post and my re-entry into the PF opportunities. I have been away so much. And I mean both from PF blogosphere and home.

  12. I just dug back into villanelles! This one is all kinds of perfect — perfect form, perfect content. I hope it gets published more widely someday!

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