Obscure Holidays: Near Miss Day, March 23

In this installment of Obscure Holidays, I present to you “Near Miss Day,” today on March 23rd. Apparently, this day was established to celebrate March 23rd, 1989, when an asteroid the size of a mountain just barely slipped past earth, passing within 500,000 miles of the planet. This holiday seems especially relevant, as some of you might remember the asteroid in mid-February that passed within 17,200 miles of earth. So in actuality, it seems this recent asteroid probably deserves its own holiday more than the old one, but ah well–for now, we’ll go with March 23rd.

It wasn’t an easy task to find a fitting poem for this particular day, but I think I found one that’s appropriate enough. It’s called “The Age of Dinosaurs” by James Scruton, and it’s a fairly recent poem (2001) I discovered on the Poetry Foundation’s website. It might not be about asteroids per se, but it’s close enough, and I quite like the poem anyway:

***

The Age of Dinosaurs

by James Scruton

***

There are, of course, theories

about the wide-eyed, drop-jawed

fascination children have for them,

about how, before he’s learned

his own phone number or address,

a five-year-old can carry

like a few small stones

the Latin tonnage of those names,

the prefixes and preferences

for leaf or meat.

***

My son recites the syllables

I stumble over now,

sets up figures as I did

years ago in his prehistory.

Here is the green ski slope

of a brontosaur’s back,

there a triceratops in full

gladiator gear. From the arm

of a chair a pterodactyl

surveys the dark primeval carpet.

***

Each has disappeared from time

to time, excavated finally

from beneath a cabinet

or the sofa cushions, only

to be buried again among its kind

in the deep toy chest,

the closed lid snug as earth.

The next time they’re brought out

to roam the living room

another bone’s been found

***

somewhere, a tooth or fragment

of an eggshell dusted off,

brushing away some long-held notion

about their life-span

or intelligence, warm blood

or cold. On the floor

they face off as if debating

the latest find, what part

of which one of them

has been discovered this time.

***

Or else they stand abreast

in one long row, side

by scaly side, waiting to fall

like dominoes, my son’s

tossed tennis ball a neon yellow

asteroid, his shadow a dark cloud

when he stands, his fervor for them

cooling so slowly he can’t feel it—

the speed of glaciers, maybe,

how one age slides into the next.

With all this talk of asteroids, I’d suggest getting in some poetry reading while you still can. After all, you never know when a giant flaming rock might cut your reading days short. Although recently, I’ve heard talk of scientists trying to find new ways to deflect asteroids, like with laser beams and whatnot…I wonder if any of that stuff would actually work out? Anyway, if you wanna hear a funny song about dinosaurs/asteroids, check this one out on youtube.

I had to put this here.

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