Mission I: Rediscover your uncommon senses
"Interstellar Flower Delivery" is the debut poetry collection by Ana Wang, inspired by and set in the sterile yet lushly metaphoric expanse of outer space.
Concept
Does knowledge destroy romance? Is ignorance bliss? Science brought us to Summer 2022, a landmark year in astronomy brought to you by the James Webb Telescope and the social media people at NASA; proof that deeper understanding of the universe does not quell the imagination or sentiment.
Each poem is inspired by an image from NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD), a publicly viewable archive of space images from all over the world, updated daily since 1995.
Composition
14 original full poems + a prelude + 4 mini interludes = 19 poems total. A whiff of the stars bottled into sparks for your joy and wonder.
Top notes: first fires, final raindrops
Middle notes: whimsy and fairy tales and rejigged memories
Base notes: Musky like the air of everywhere at once, sharp like the jagged edges of metal, fresh like whatever gave me goosebumps, floral like all the flowers I sent into space to say the things I couldn't
Application
· To be enjoyed at any place or time of life, but of particularly strong potency on waning summer / early autumn nights, when you look up at the stars to wonder what you really are.
· Read one poem or read them all at once in the order prescribed to experience an inter-connected narrative unfold.
· Don’t forget to enter the "expansion pack", an online author’s notes experience which includes details on all theories and references plus other fun things for your senses and imagination.
Additional Details
Sillage: Leaves a trail of wonder.
Projection: Near and far in memory and time.
Longevity: Lingers as long as you need it to.
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Poem Pack I
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Poem Pack II
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Poem Pack V
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Poem Pack VI
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Poem Pack VII
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Poem Pack VIII
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Poem Pack IX
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Poem Pack X
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Poem Pack XI
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Poem Pack XII
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Poem Pack XIII
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Poem Pack XIV
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Poem Pack XV
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Poem Pack XVI
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Poem Pack XVII
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Poem Pack XVIII
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Poem Pack XIX
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Poem Pack XX
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Choose Your Own Adventure v_2
Buy the digital edition
Ebook (PDF + EPUB)
The digital-only version of "Interstellar Flower Delivery", a chapbook by Ana Wang, featuring 40 pages of poems inspired by NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day images.
Includes all 19 poems from poem packs, in digital editions to read on your tablet, phone, or eReader as well as access to online "Expansion Pack" experience with author's notes, a space-inspired Spotify mixtape, and more.
Try a Sample
All for wonder,
wonder for all.
The summer of 2022—enter, a husky breath after one
held in groundhog days at the false alarm end. When
we came up for blue skies we chased again objects so shiny
we were blinded, moved so furiously we became tangled up
in the haze of the wild web someone out there made.
We granted ourselves the amazing grace of a wider lens,
saw awe square in the eye as cohorts of us dangled
with six feet of space, fingertip to fingertip,
mundane magic on tap,
tap,
tap
dripping from a faucet shooting the gas that lit
the periwinkle skies cradling us in the illusion of safety,
the same gas that made the pink of my mother’s womb
and the violet rays killing me by flesh softly yet so brutally.
You are made of stardust—a once-brilliant footprint, but now?
It’s been a while; I’ve evolved into an iteration of rearranged atoms
in need of a motivational quote. Did the big bang say to itself:
just do it? Did it know that one day it’d be capable of all of this?
Gravity fades undetected as I look up, see shifting monuments of
universal decay, some so far away they’re already gone, a chamber
of inescapable doom, luring us in with the silent echoes of
itty bittiness. Truth was on the tip of my tongue and
I realize, on my way to the unknowable finish line,
in a race no one signed up for, with no prize,
no consolation, but to be a witness to each rise:
You, my wonder, are still on your first lap.
What's a chapbook?
Full Ingredients List
Eau de Big Bang / N63A: Supernova Remnant in Visible and X-ray, December 11, 2019
Your Majesty / Dust Mountains in the Carina Nebula, October 7, 2008
Every Shade of Rain / Celestial Fireworks: Into Star Cluster Westerlund 2, July 4, 2017
Insta-noodle Poetry / In the Heart of the Heart Nebula, February 14, 2022
The Sugar Cube People / The Horsehead Nebula, July 13, 2003
Nevers / IRAS 20324: Evaporating Protostar, September 4, 2013
Stardust Yellow Pages / Molecular Cloud Barnard 68, June 23, 2009
Time is a Stranger I'm Not Ready to Meet / A Rocket Debris Cloud Drifts, February 26, 2007
How to Turn Pulp Into Stars / Abell 2218: A Galaxy Cluster Lens, February 10, 2008
Yellow Lights, Red Lights / La Superba, December 18, 2008
Painting Red Roses on Mars / In the Center of the Cat's Eye Nebula, July 10, 2022
Butterfly Effects / Iron in the Butterfly Nebula, July 21, 2020
Out There / First Horizon-Scale Image of a Black Hole, April 11, 2019
All Aboard the Trans-galactic Express / The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in Light and Sound, August 2, 2021
APpendix