{"id":683,"date":"2010-07-20T08:00:21","date_gmt":"2010-07-19T20:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=683"},"modified":"2010-07-20T13:53:38","modified_gmt":"2010-07-20T01:53:38","slug":"tuesday-poem-the-first-artist-on-mars-by-tim-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2010\/07\/20\/tuesday-poem-the-first-artist-on-mars-by-tim-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday Poem: “The First Artist On Mars” by Tim Jones"},"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 —
\nme and two photographers —
\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 —
\nyou know, ‘our brave scientists at work’ —
\nbut I told them
\nyou’ll 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’t be too displeased.
\nThey’re sponsoring my touring show.
\nThat’s coming up next spring.<\/p>\n

Would I go back? Don’t know.
\nIt’s a hell of a distance
\nand my muscles almost got flabby
\nin the low G. Took me ages
\nto recover — 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’s so different.
\nMars is OK — so old, so red,
\nso vertical. Quite a place
\nbut limited, you know?<\/p>\n

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

Tim writes:<\/p>\n

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

—<\/p>\n

Helen writes:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Voyagers<\/p><\/div>\n

Tim Jones<\/a> is a fellow Tuesday Poem<\/a> poet, as well as an editor and writer of speculative, literary and interstitial fiction.\u00a0 In addition to The All Black’s Kitchen Garden, <\/em>his short story collection, Transported<\/strong><\/em>, was published by Vintage in 2008 and\u00a0longlisted 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<\/strong><\/em> (Interactive Publications, 2009). I initially encountered “The First Artist on Mars<\/em>” in Voyagers<\/em><\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

This thread to the poem, of course, fits with yesterday’s second instalment of my “Influences on Story”<\/a> post series, in which the influence I looked at was landscape, in reality and on the imagination. If you check out the post<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

By way of extra encouragement, everyone who comments will go in the draw to win a signed cover flat of The Heir of Night<\/strong><\/em>. \":-)\" (The commentary and giveaway opportunity will run until 9 am Wednesday morning, NZ time.)<\/p>\n

So do feel free, poets and poetry readers, to take a look<\/a> and participate!<\/p>\n

To read more Tuesday Poems<\/strong> go to the main site<\/a> (or click on the Quill icon in the sidebar).<\/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 — 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-writers","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683","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=683"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":694,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683\/revisions\/694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}