The First Artist on Mars

Well, the first professional artist
There were scientists who, you know
dabbled
but NASA sent us —
me and two photographers —
to build support for the program.

The best day?
That was in Marineris.
Those canyons are huge
each wall a planet
turned on its side.
I did a power of painting there.

You can see all my work
at the opening. Do come.
Hey, they wanted me to paint propaganda —
you know, ‘our brave scientists at work’ —
but I told them
you’ll get nothing but the truth from me

I just paint what I see
and let others worry
what the public think.
Still, the agency can’t be too displeased.
They’re sponsoring my touring show.
That’s coming up next spring.

Would I go back? Don’t know.
It’s a hell of a distance
and my muscles almost got flabby
in the low G. Took me ages
to recover — lots of gym and water time
when I should have been painting.

But Jupiter would be worth the trip!
Those are awesome landscapes
those moons, each one’s so different.
Mars is OK — so old, so red,
so vertical. Quite a place
but limited, you know?

(c) Tim Jones

Tim writes:

“The First Artist On Mars” was first published in Blackmail Press 15 (May 2006) and was included in my second poetry collection, “All Blacks’ Kitchen Gardens”, where it forms part of a sequence about the exploration of Mars called “Red Stone”. That sequence was inspired by Kim Stanley Robinson’s superb Mars Trilogy, but this rather conceited artist is entirely my own invention.”

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Helen writes:

Voyagers

Tim Jones is a fellow Tuesday Poem poet, as well as an editor and writer of speculative, literary and interstitial fiction.  In addition to The All Black’s Kitchen Garden, his short story collection, Transported, was published by Vintage in 2008 and longlisted for the 2008 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. He is also the co-editor, with Mark Pirie, of Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand (Interactive Publications, 2009). I initially encountered “The First Artist on Mars” in Voyagers and felt that the invention of Tim’s “rather conceited artist” was an excellent one—and yet the feeling for Mars as place still came through.

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This thread to the poem, of course, fits with yesterday’s second instalment of my “Influences on Story” post series, in which the influence I looked at was landscape, in reality and on the imagination. If you check out the post, you’ll see that there’s also an opportunity, as writers, to comment on whether there are landscapes that have strongly influenced your work. Or you can comment as a reader re landscapes in fiction that you have either particularly enjoyed (as I enjoyed Mars in this poem) or felt shaped a work.

By way of extra encouragement, everyone who comments will go in the draw to win a signed cover flat of The Heir of Night. (The commentary and giveaway opportunity will run until 9 am Wednesday morning, NZ time.)

So do feel free, poets and poetry readers, to take a look and participate!

To read more Tuesday Poems go to the main site (or click on the Quill icon in the sidebar).