{"id":28019,"date":"2015-02-03T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=28019"},"modified":"2015-01-29T15:30:39","modified_gmt":"2015-01-29T02:30:39","slug":"the-tuesday-poem-refeaturing-tim-jones-the-first-artist-on-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2015\/02\/03\/the-tuesday-poem-refeaturing-tim-jones-the-first-artist-on-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tuesday Poem: Refeaturing Tim Jones — “The First Artist On Mars”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The First Artist on Mars<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, the first professional<\/em> artist
\nThere were scientists who, you know
\ndabbled
\nbut NASA sent us \u2013
\nme and two photographers \u2013
\nto build support for the program.<\/p>\n

The best day?
\nThat was in Marineris.
\nThose canyons are huge
\neach wall a planet
\nturned on its side.
\nI did a power of painting there.<\/p>\n

You can see all my work
\nat the opening. Do<\/em> come.
\nHey, they wanted me to paint propaganda \u2013
\nyou know, \u2018our brave scientists at work\u2019 \u2013
\nbut I told them
\nyou\u2019ll get nothing but the truth from me<\/p>\n

I just paint what I see
\nand let others worry
\nwhat the public think.
\nStill, the agency can\u2019t be too displeased.
\nThey\u2019re sponsoring my touring show.
\nThat\u2019s coming up next spring.<\/p>\n

Would I go back? Don\u2019t know.
\nIt\u2019s a hell of a distance
\nand my muscles almost got flabby
\nin the low G. Took me ages
\nto recover \u2014 lots of gym and water time
\nwhen I should have been painting.<\/p>\n

But Jupiter would be worth the trip!
\nThose are awesome landscapes
\nthose moons, each one\u2019s so different.
\nMars is OK \u2014 so old, so red,
\nso vertical. Quite a place
\nbut limited, you know?<\/p>\n

(c) Tim Jones<\/p>\n

First published in Blackmail Press 15<\/em><\/strong> (May 2006); republished in Tim’s second poetry collection, \u201cAll Blacks\u2019 Kitchen Gardens\u201d <\/em><\/strong>(HeadworX, 2007)
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

About The Poem:<\/h4>\n

When I featured The First Artist On Mars<\/em> on 20 July 2010<\/a>—soon after I first started blogging and joined the Tuesday Poem community—he wrote that the poem<\/p>\n

“…forms part of a sequence about the exploration of Mars called \u201cRed Stone\u201d. That sequence was inspired by Kim Stanley Robinson\u2019s superb Mars Trilogy, but this rather conceited artist is entirely my own invention.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I must admit that I have always loved the artist’s “rather conceited” voice, while the poem speaks to my love of astronomy, space exploration, and science fiction—all loves that I know intersect with Tim’s own interests. I am a fan of both Tim’s poetry and his short stories and am very pleased to be re-posting his previous “…on Anything, Really”<\/em> featured poems over the next few weeks—an excellent way, I hope, to shine the spotlight on the poet.
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"JonesTim\"<\/a>About The Poet:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tim Jones is a New Zealand poet, author and editor who was awarded both the New Zealand Society of Authors Janet Frame Memorial Award for Literature and a Sir Julius Vogel Award in 2010. His latest book, co-edited with PS Cottier, is The Stars Like Sand: Australian Speculative Poetry<\/em><\/strong> (2014).<\/p>\n

For more, see http:\/\/timjonesbooks.blogspot.com\/<\/a>
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"TuesPoem\"<\/a>To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub<\/strong> and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The First Artist on Mars Well, the first professional artist There were scientists who, you know dabbled but NASA sent us \u2013 me and two photographers \u2013 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28019"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28027,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28019\/revisions\/28027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}