Poet Profile

Bard of Mars (James Ph. Kotsybar)

Chosen for special recognition by NASA, James Ph. Kotsybar is the first poet to be published to another planet. His haiku currently orbits Mars aboard the MAVEN spacecraft, appears in the mission log of The Hubble Space Telescope, and was featured at NASA’s Centaur Art Challenge at Ingenuity Fest, Ohio. Last Summer, he performed his poetry before an international audience of scientists, journalists and actual Troubadours in their founding city of Toulouse, France, at the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF 2018) by invitation and has been invited back to ESOF 2020 to be held in Trieste, Italy.
Most recently he has had poems published in The Bubble, Askew, The Society of Classical Poets, LUMMOX Press, Sixfold, Mason’s Road, Dreamers Magazine, Our Poetica, California Quarterly, Encore and Scifaikuest, and has received honors from The State Poetry Society of Michigan and the Balticon 48 Poetry Competition.

Awards and Other Honors:

State Poetry Society of Michigan Award (2HM 2015); Hubble Space Telescope – limerick included in mission log (2010), NASA’s Centaur Art Challenge – Ingenuity Fest, Ohio (September 2014); Maryland Regional Science Fiction Convention – BALTICON 48 Poetry Competition (May 2014); NASA’s MAVEN Program – haiku chosen for “special recognition” and launch to Mars (August 2013); Lone Stars Magazine -- LIGHT OF THE STARS (January 2013); Tapestry of Bronze – ODES TO THE OLYMPIANS (Spring 2012); Society of Classical Poets – FIRST ANNUAL COMPETITION (2012).

MAVEN tastes the air
too thin to hold ocean's broth
wafted on Sol's winds

To shine the brightest
stars must possess a dense core
dim stars lack substance

Small puddles of words
reflect refract and reveal
recent waterworks

Dark Energy can
overwhelm attractive force
and drive all away

Wobbling in free fall
glistening water orbits
your red eyes like moons

We’re sometimes led down
paths to a brighter future
in total darkness

Credits:

“MAVEN tastes the air” - haiku chosen for “special recognition” and launch to Mars (August 2013; “To shine the brightest” - ASTROPHYSICAL REALITY Dreamers Magazine Issue 3, 2019; “Small puddles of words” - BEHIND THE HAIKU Our Poetica (Cathexis Northwest Press), May 2019; “Dark Energy can” - LIGHTEN UP Science Meets Poetry 6 EUROSCIENCE 2018 (ISBN 978-179667-1278); “Wobbling in free fall” - NOT QUITE WEIGHTLESS - Scifaikuest May 2017; “We’re sometimes led down” - WANDER LAND California Quarterly (State Poetry Society) Volume 44, Number 2, 2018.