In The Polaris Trilogy mounted on the Lunar Codex carried in a NASA SpaceX rocket payload headed for the South Pole of the Moon, a home forever. Lunar Codex is an archive of art, poetry, film & music created by Dr. Samuel Peralta.
Universe Series – Lunar Landing, 30″*36″, oil on canvas, 2006, Smeetha Bhoumik
Snapshot
Of A Roaring YQR Timeline:
1. Summer of 2021 – Yugen Quest Review is born (First edition Jun/Jul 2021)
(Poetry from WE Poetry Awards and #CeWoPoWriMoWE. Focus – Earth, Green. Feminine.
2. 2022 – Sixth Edition – In Search of New Worlds (APWT Bangalore, Nov 2022)
3. 2023 – Special Edition – Flying to the Moon – in The Lunar Codex founded by Dr. Samuel Peralta. And in The Polaris Trilogy edited by Joyce Brinkman (Lead Editor & Inaugural Poet Laureate of Indiana), Joe Heithaus, Jessica Reed, and published by Brick Street Poetry.
Four Sections of the Special Edition
Embodied curated by Dr.Sonali Pattnaik,
For Women Who Make Mistakes curated by Dr. Somrita Urni Ganguly
Flying to the Moon by Smeetha Bhoumik
Tribute (March 23, 2023) to poet Sujatha Mathai. 2. Sujatha and WE
In Brief: YQR. Lunar Codex. Polaris Trilogy.
YQR – Poetry & Melodies
The new year 2023 opened with a magical acceptance letter from Joyce Brinkman of Brick Street Poetry, sending congratulations that my poetry was going to the moon as part of The Polaris Trilogy anthology! I can’t even begin to describe that stunned moment of sheer happiness that seemed to put me over the moon right there…
And then came the realization that Yugen Quest Review will be flying to the moon too, of course, being the reference cited as my favourite, and therefore on the go.
Yo!
Here WE are then – excited beyond words at the prospect of having our work at home on the moon forever, ready to be found by adventurers for millions of years.
It is time to celebrate this historic event with exquisite sections specially curated by WE Award winning poets, writers, as brilliant navigators of life and its adventures – Dr. Sonali Pattnaik (Embodied), Dr. Somrita Urni Ganguly (For Women Who Make Mistakes) and yours truly (Flying to the Moon)
Our immense thanks go out to everyone who has contributed to this space of learning and knowing, of breaking barriers and establishing trajectories of personal and collective growth.
Special thanks to Dr.Samuel Peralta, physicist, best-selling author, entrepreneur and story-teller, who has created the Lunar Codex.; and Dr. Joyce Brinkman, Lead Editor, The Polaris Trilogy.
Immense thanks to our WE Poetry Awards Judges Panel – Dr. Nishat Haider, Dr.Taseer Gujral, Dr. Somrita Urni Ganguly, (latest addition is yours truly).
Warm regards to all WE Poetry Awardees and poets – may you always enrich the world with your literary gifts.
Yugen Quest Review came into being in the summer of 2021, as a sudden melodious movement of things falling in place, a magical realization of long-held dreams. It seemed surprising in its structure and clarity, its intense focus overriding the pandemic chaos and uncertainty – a testimony to the truism that darkness may always be overwritten with light! Earlier attempts in ‘normal times’ at creating just such a literary space had met with little ot no success, as if waiting for that single-minded focus, that gathering together of oneself into a bare-minimum subsistence existence. The poetry that had flowed in our writing space during the two fearful years, came surging into its pristine atmosphere, lending a glow to the ‘Quest’ in Yugen Quest Review. The technical and literary aspects just fell in place like Lego bricks joining up to create happiness…
Starting out with the poetry of WE Poetry Awardees ’20, and featuring writing from the WE poetry space (Celebrate World Poetry Writing Month with WE-#CeWoPoWriMoWE),
Yugen Quest Review has been adventurous, exciting and on a quest for new worlds of enhanced understanding, equality, freedom and beauty.
In Nov 2022, WE participated at the Asia Pacific Writers & Translators (APWT) International Literary Festival – Writing Outside the Frame, in Bangalore, where our panel ‘Writing As Bridges’ was warmly received. WE spoke of new worlds – expansive, inclusive, safe and abundant that opened up new channels of thinking. Some treasured moments are reflected in the YQR edition ‘In Search of New Worlds’ (Dec ’22 Jan-Feb 2023).
And here we are then, in the March 2023 special edition ‘Flying to the Moon!’
Serendipity…Synchronicity….the happy hum of resonating chords fill up our senses…
The Lunar Codex
Dr. Samuel Peralta is the founder of The Lunar Codex, a series of time capsules launching to the Moon in tandem with NASA’s program to return humanity to the Moon, with partners Astrobotic Technology, Intuitive Machines, SpaceX, and the United Launch Alliance. The Lunar Codex represents creative work from 145 countries and territories all over the globe, and archives art, poetry, books, music, and film from over 30,000 contemporary creative artists.
Read all about the Lunar Codex and details of its art/poetry/music archives, and The Polaris Trilogy here:
The Polaris Trilogy
Edited by Joyce Brinkman, inaugural Poet Laureate of Indiana and Executive Director of Brick Street Poetry; Dr. Joe Heithaus, Professor at DePauw University (Indiana, USA); Jessica Reed, Professor at Butler University (Indiana, USA); and Barry Harris, Vice President of Brick Street Poetry and editor of the Tipton Poetry Journal (Indiana, USA)
– Commissioned by the Lunar Codex for its Polaris Collection archive
– Cover illustration ‘Polaris A and Polaris Ab’, ESA/Hubble, recoloring by Joyce Brinkman
– Back cover illustration ‘The Lunar Codex: Sites, Spacecraft, and Time Capsules’, Incandence Corp., recoloring by Joyce Brinkman
– Foreword ‘The Polaris Trilogy’ by Dr. Samuel Peralta
Joyce Brinkman Talks to Yugen Quest Review
Happy reading!
Happy Holi & Brilliant Women’s Day to you,
Smeetha Bhoumik – Editor, Yugen Quest Review
March 8, 2023
Yugen Quest Review 