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      November 23, 2014Unsent Letter from Philae, Comet 67PRachel J. Bennett

      In the meantime, the Rosetta orbiter is continuing to look for Philae’s final landing spot, and it will seek out transmissions from the lander every day when the two are within line-of-sight.

      To approximate calligraphically the three-hundred million miles
      I traveled between your lungs to arrive so far from the sun, one
      should sit before an empty jar of ink and imagine a distant white
      rectangle like a field of snow not a single hoof or wheel
      has impressed. It was not planned but of course I stopped near
      a cliff, of course there was less charge than they’d hoped, and
      there would never be enough time. If it was cold, I was calibrated
      to say it but not feel it. If it was lonely, I did not have a word
      to say so. Together we carried twenty-one instruments. Together
      we stepped out over the shoulder of South America into layers
      of distance, and I wanted to tell them so many things even while
      not one of my instruments was a heart. We had no inkling of so
      many things: the symmetry of a cat’s stripes, morning glories still
      in November, how patiently one of them waited for another to feel
      what she felt. I knew what we knew, gravitational ellipses, and then
      only what I could touch: frozen dust, methane, carbon dioxide,
      ammonia, and somewhere farther than possible a song I couldn’t
      yet hear that would make this new home of mine turn to something
      akin to light, from where they stood. If it was a success, I wasn’t
      the one to succeed. If it was cold … The picture I snapped of you as
      we parted looked to some like a rock concert, no pun intended,
      as if I were not me at all but one of billions. As if I were surrounded
      by everyone who might hold me, were reality different from this.

      from Poets Respond

      Rachel J. Bennett

      “The poem responds to the possibly permanent hibernation that comet lander Philae entered into on Comet 67P on Saturday November 15. I find the unfolding of 67P’s exploration extremely moving for a number of reasons, not least of which is the mirror it holds up to us, how much time and effort we pour into our lives for these brief flashes before going dark. Add to this the fact that the Rosetta orbiter still has power and continues to look for the lander with which it traveled for 10 years and you begin to feel some of what I’m feeling. “

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