By: Alicia Sometimes
how we tell ourselves the bleak expanse
of nothingness is something | observe
calibrating the past | spatial increments
lambent assemblies of branched history
bold telescope in halo orbit | L2 Lagrange
point | waiting for clarity in staring cold
its primary eyes scanning | 18 hexagonal
mirror segments | gold-plated beryllium
scouring distant galactic light | deep field
nebula more than just sparkle on a poster
the way we keep searching | things larger
than new space | we are immensely small
honeycombs surveying long-wavelength
visible light | through to mid-infrared
anticipating the mumblings of first stars
how life begins | formations of planets
during alignment process | self-reflection
precision composure | resplendent focus
discovering where we have been | where
we will be | a sharp lens on our universe
Alicia Sometimes is an Australian poet, writer and broadcaster. She has performed her spoken word and poetry at many venues, festivals and events around the world. She is director and co-writer of the art/science planetarium shows, Elemental and Particle/Wave. Alicia was previous Fellow at the State Library of Victoria and has had residencies at Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers' Centre, Varuna and Melbourne Aquarium. She is currently a Science Gallery Melbourne ‘Leonardo’ (creative advisor). Her TedxUQ talk in 2019 was about the passion of combining art with science. In 2020 Alicia won the Bruce Dawe Poetry Prize. In 2021 she is completing a Boyd Garret residency for the City of Melbourne and Virtual Writer in Residency for Manchester City of Literature and Manchester Literature Festival.
Behind the Scenes:
The JW Space Telescope is the largest telescope humans have ever sent into space. It will be able to look further into deep space than we could have ever imagined. It uses segmented mirror technology and after its first images were sent back to us we can delight in its many possibilities. I wanted to write a poem about the hope and daring that goes into something as marvellous as JWST. I'm just so proud of those thousands of scientists and engineers who worked on it for so many years.