LesleyScoble.com

Scars and Stardust

The marks humans leave are too often scars—
Deforestation,
Mining,
Oil refining,
Wars.

Never-ending roads,
With billions of cars,
Frag | ment / ing 
The land
of soil, stone, and sand.

Flags furled,
Unfurled,
defining race.
Don’t cross the line,
this place is mine.
Prisoners of conscience 
hurled behind bars.

Understand—
We don’t own the world—
yet we gouge out fissures 
and scars.

We’re specks
on a tiny orb
in the middle of space,
close to our moon—
not far from Mars.
In the grand scheme of it all—
this planet ain’t ours
to ruin and spoil
with irreparable scars.

Look up at the sky
at uncountable stars—
and see who we are.
We are scattered stardust,
surrounded by 
star   upon star   upon star    upon star…	 



Lesley Scoble, March 2025

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Notes

The Blue Dot
On Feb. 14, 1990, NASA’s Voyager 1 took a very special image. The spacecraft was out beyond Neptune when it looked back for a final time and snapped an image of our world that it was leaving behind on its journey into interstellar space.
The famous blue dot image shows how precious, vulnerable, and irreplaceable our world is.

(Resource: Science.nasa.gov)

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Looking Back at Earth from Mars

“We’re specks on a tiny orb in the middle of space, close to our moon— not far from Mars.”

Resource: The Space Writer

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This video from Nasa helps reveal how vast the cosmos is!

Hubble’s UItra Deep Field in 3D is an amazing journey through space and time

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I wrote my poem Scars and Stardust, in response to the W3 Prompt #148. Where the Poet of the week, Violet Lentz, challenges us to write a poem incorporating a quote from a choice of three. I chose the quote, “ The marks humans leave are too often scars.” (I know, it’s the best line in my poem, right?)

(a) There are years that ask questions and years that answer.
‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ by Zora Neale Hurston (1891  – 1960)

(b) The marks humans leave are too often scars.
‘The Fault in Our Stars’ by John Green (b. 1977)

(c) Sometimes I think being scared is half the fun.
‘House of Hollow’ by Krystal Sutherland (b. 1990)

Please click below to find out more about the prompt.

W3 Prompt #148: Wea’ve Written Weekly

THANK YOU
Violet for your inspirational prompt and quotes.
David my thanks for all your inspiration and encouragement. I owe you so much.

Images by AI: Yes, I’m afraid I’ve succumbed to the ease and speed one can now generate an illustration with AI. I am still recuperating from my recent illness, but when I get better, I shall pick up my pen again. However, it would take hours for me to create the scenic images such as created here in moments by AI!

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Lesley lives in the City of London Square Mile. An artist, actor and sculptor (her first ceramic sculpture won the V&A inspired by… Award). Scenic artist & book illustrator, playwright (her musical play, Rapscallion performed in inner city schools and theatre school); TV dancer; mime artist; Animator and illustrator for TV production. Set up Pinecone Studios Ltd and IIMSI Ltd drama and filmmaking workshops in London – producing award-winning films made by children.