| Poem for Asteroid Braille |
| Los Angeles poet, Billie Dee, has been commissioned by the Library of Congress National Library Service to write a poem about asteroid 9969 Braille. The space rock was named in honor of Louis Braille, inventor of the most widely used reading system for the blind. |
| I. Space Moths We know the Universe is largely made of nothing, vast as the space between the atoms of our bodies. Bravely, we send our tiny moth-like probes out into the night, their solar-panels spread like fragile wings, they are drawn toward the ancient glow of galaxies a billion years extinct. II. The Minor Planet Vesta Spawns the Asteroid Braille Long before the Vestal Virgins let the sacred flame burn out, long before the Goddess of the Hearth joined a league of drifting rocks, the Asteroid Braille was formed from Vesta's side, and flung toward Apollo. Tumbling in the solar wind, Braille is now in near-Earth orbit, a mischief maker flirting with collision, aching for a chance to play with fire. III. Star Blind The star-nosed mole has never seen the sky, is unaware the canopy of night glows in celebration of her stellar snout. IV. Star Prayer The story of our Past is embossed on flying rock, the asteroids that grope their way around the sun, measuring the stretch of time between the last big bang and the next big crunch. Each night the sky opens like a prayer etched in braille. We stretch our fingers out toward the stars in supplication, and though we cannot see where it is we are going, we are filled with hope for Tomorrow. |
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National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped NASA/ JPL Deep Space Project Asteroid Braille Billie Dee's homepage |
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| ANNOUNCEMENT On May 2, 2000, Billie Dee will be reading selections from her poetry for the Library of Congress, National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. |
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| for Dr. Eleanor Helin and Braille Babcock |
| 9969 Braille was discovered in 1992 by Dr. Eleanor Helin and Dr. Kenneth Lawrence of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It was named by Kennedy Space Center software engineer Kerry Babcock in a contest sponsored by the International Astronimical Union Small Bodies Naming Committee. The asteroid was orbited on July 29, 1999 by NASA's Deep Space-1 probe and continues to be monitored by JPL's NEAT Project, headed by Dr. Helin. |
| Billie Dee has written many poems about science and medicine. Her recent work is filled with concrete imagery, layered metaphor, highly textured language, and "... those odd moments that snap you into new awareness." She is the author of four poetry chapbooks, the latest of which, Painting the Dog, is available through her website at http://www.oocities.org/billiedee2000 |
| About the Author |
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| Los Angeles poet, Billie Dee, has been commissioned by the Library of Congress National Library Service to write a poem about asteroid 9969 Braille. The space rock was discovered at NASA's Jet Propulsion Labs, and named in honor of Louis Braille, inventor of the most widely used reading system for the blind |
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