There are two poems which Mr. Bradbury wrote, which I believe were never published in book form. I am anxious to track both down.

The first was written after the first Viking Lander mission, and I saw it as a teenager in the LA Times. It is a powerful poem with a message the has been reflected elsewhere in Mr. Bradbury's fiction.

The second was written and recited by Mr. Bradbury as part of a radio drama adaptation of The Man, the was produced and broadcast by KBYU radio.

Does any one have any idea where I could get text copies of these two works. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

hey r we the only 1's in this thing???

hello???

Bradbury recently had "They have not seen the stars: The complete poetry of ray bradbury" published.If the poems are available, they should be contained in that book. What are the names of the poems?

Does this one help?

They have not seen the stars,
Not one, not one
Of all the creatures on this world
In all the ages since the sands
First touched the wind,
Not one, not one,
No beast of all the beasts has stood
On meadowland or plain or hill
And known the thrill of looking at those fires.
Our soul admires what they,
Oh, they, have never known.
Five billion years have flown
In turnings of the spheres,
But not once in all those years
Has lion, dog, or bird that sweeps the air
Looked there, oh, look. Looked there.
Ah, God, the stars. Oh, look, there!

It is as if all time had never been,
Nor Universe or Sun or Moon
Or simple morning light.
Those beasts, their tragedy was mute and blind,
And so remains. Our sight?
Yes, ours? to know now what we are.

But think of it, then choose. Now, which?
Born to raw Earth, inhabiting a scene,
And all of it no sooner viewed, erased,
As if these miracles had never been?
Vast circlings of sounding fire and frost,
And all when focused, what? as quickly lost?

Or us, in fragile flesh, with God's new eyes
That lift and comprehend and search the skies?
We watch the seasons drifting in the lunar tide
And know the years, remembering what's died.


[This message has been edited by fjpalumbo (edited 09-25-2002).]

Resurrecting this ancient, ancient thread, blowing off the cobwebs and the mummy-dust to post this link to a blog post which finally, seven-and-a-half-years on, seems to answer jktaylor. A shame jktaylor only ever made one post, and probably never came back, but here is the information they were looking for:

http://booksonmars.blogspot.co...lanet-mars-1976.html

After all these years, I have, Indeed, been able to find the two poems I mentioned earlier when signed on as jktaylor. The first, as CyCo noted, published in "They Have Not Seen the Stars."
It can also be found at this link published as an image file:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UmHe...s1600-h/marsbrad.jpg

The second has never been published.

After I left this post, I ened up visiting Ray in LA while there on other business, and he was kind enough to give a copy of his collected poems. He was also mystified about the second poem - a revisitation of the themes he explored in his short story "The Man". He had read it himself as part of a narrated introduction and closure to a radiodrama production of "The Man" produced in 1975 by Mike McDonnough (sp?), but then forgotten by Ray, and never published.

I finally tracked down an audiotape copy of the studio master from that production and transcribed the poem, delivering a copy to Ray who was very appreciative. If anyone is interested, I would be happy to pass on, privately, and under conditions of non-publication on the net, a copy of this undiscovered gem.

Hi, The Alchemist, and welcome (back)!

Could you please email me? I would like to discuss further! phil at bradburymedia dot co dot uk

Thanks!