“The Most Human” (with sincere apologies to Adam Nimoy)

I performed two poems at Lowell Observatory's annual I ❤ Pluto Festival Saturday, Feb. 15, at the Orpheum Theatre. The featured guests were Adam Nimoy, a television director and son of the late actor Leonard Nimoy; Alan Stern, Ph.D., Principal Investigator of the New Horizons Mission to Pluto; comet-hunter David Levy, who co-discovered Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (D/1993 F2) with Flagstaff scientists Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker.

This was the second of the two poems I wrote for the event. Adam Nimoy gave me standing ovation as I left the stage. I'm so glad he enjoyed this poem about his dad.

Adam Nimoy emailed me after the festival:

"Thank you for all of this, Christopher. Very thoughtful, thought provoking, and just simply well said.

A fitting tribute to a man and an icon both of whom have become so much a part of our collective psyche.

LLAP,

Adam"

“The Most Human”

(with sincere apologies to Adam Nimoy)

by Christopher Fox Graham

“Space: the final frontier”

urged us to look beyond this earth

upwards

to trek across the stars

to contemplate what’s beyond the event horizon

of Doomsday Machine black holes

wonder, awestruck at the Menagerie

of metronomic pulsars

of sapphire-amethyst nebulae

stretching across light years 

to go where no man has gone before

Mercury, Gemini and Apollo brought men

to the edge of space and beyond

but before Armstrong set foot on the moon

we were already among the stars

as silent passengers aboard our 

Enterprise

This model of the starship Enterprise was used in the original 1966-1969 "Star Trek" TV show, donated to the National Air and Space Museum in 1974.

to shorten impossible distances,

we warped space itself

for the sake of plot 

and beamed down to worlds

we will never reach

never see in our lifetime

on this side of the screen

the Red Scare

Japanese Internment camps

and Segregation weren’t yesterdays

but ancient history

sins forgiven, but never forgotten

the Enemy Within, a Balance of Terror

between human nature and our better angels

we Let That past Be Our Last Battlefield

understanding "without followers, evil cannot spread" 

and formed a United Federation

of planets and crew

the future was now

and now was history, 

Pavel Chekov navigated the course

Hikaru Sulu helmed the ship

Nyota Uhura spoke unsilenced for them all

Montgomery Scott could work miracles down below

amid redshirts 

who deaths were never statistics

but revelations that danger

hides amid the stars

we could remain safe here

trapped on This Side of Paradise

in All Our Yesterdays 

but this fragile starship Earth,

is a City on the Edge of Forever,

and the Devil is in the Dark

so we go boldly 

to seek strange new worlds,

new life and new civilizations

ethos, pathos, logos commanding in trinity

James Kirk the spirit,

Bones McCoy the heart 

and Spock the mind

Crew of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 in 2266: Lt. Cmdr. Montgomery "Scotty" Scott [James Doohan], Ensign Pavel Chekov [Walter Koenig], Lt. Cmdr./Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy [DeForest Kelley], nurse Christine Chapel [Majel Barrett], Captain James T. Kirk [William Shatner], Lt. Nyota Uhura [Nichelle Nichols], Cmdr. Spock [Leonard Nimoy] and Lt. Hikaru Sulu [George Takei], from left

passion and compassion

can’t survive long 

with death outside the bulkheads

only cold Vulcan logic could rationalize 

that the needs of the many 

outweigh the needs of the few

or the one

Spock was too human to be Vulcan,

and too Vulcan to be human,

a exile son of two worlds

fully from neither

fully from both

Photo from "Star Trek: Spock's Entire Prime Universe Timeline,Explained" ScreenRant

with pointed ears that marked him as “other,”

Spock mirrored us to ourselves

wondered what made us human

questioned what we took for granted

pushed against illogical behaviors

we accept without question

“logic is the beginning of wisdom, 

not the end”

the old Vulcan proverb says

“only Nixon could go to China”

and only Leonard Nimoy could be Spock

Mr. Nimoy,

you, too, were of two worlds

an exile son of the old 

but a citizen of the new

fully from neither 

but fully from both

your grandfather, the adventurer, 

left behind the ghosts of the old nations

came to this America, 

the mother of exiles

this safe shore for the tempest-tossed

your parents fled a shtetl in Russia

to escape pogroms and Cossack raids

your father, walking across the border to Poland

your mother, smuggled out in a hay wagon

you were born in Boston’s West End, 

speaking Yiddish with your grandmother

keeping Kosher in a city of gentiles

with rough accents and strange customs

but a sky full of the same stars

they arrived as aliens, 

and became citizens

you went to Hollywood 

and became an alien

a bridge between past and present

telling tales from the future

not burdened by history

not bound to earth

you forged Spock, 

making him more you than Roddenberry

maintaining character between shoots

the voice of reason

emotions restrained

logical, rational, distant from the chaos

you transformed a priestly blessing from synagogue

into the Vulcan salute

mainstreaming a childhood memory 

of your orthodox upbringing

into the American melting pot 

“Live Long and Prosper” a shibboleth

so we nerds and fans 

Trekkies and Trekkers,

may know each other by it

you, Mr. Nimoy as Mr. Spock,

became a symbol for NASA and astronomers

who wore pointed ears to Star Trek conventions 

after weeks studying the cosmos

when Spock fell at the Battle of the Mutara Nebula

his death shook two galaxies

sacrificing himself to save the ship and the crew

dying as he lived

his final words:

“I have been... 

and always shall be... 

your friend”

said to Kirk, but meant for all of us

you and Spock speaking as one

and you are our friend, Mr. Nimoy,

even if only met through the screen

Hollywood cast and Starfleet crew

brought Spock back,

McCoy lost his mind holding your katra

Kirk lost his son, his ship, his command

the crew destroyed a planet

destroyed the Enterprise

“Because the needs of the one... “

“outweigh the needs of the many”

and your fascinating story was not yet over

neither in time 

nor in timeline

true friendship transcends death

The cast on the set of "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," in 1991, the last film where the original crew appeared as a group.

your final words, off screen, Mr. Nimoy,

were your blessing, LLAP

“Live Long and Prosper”

fully human, fully Vulcan

even at the end

you gave yourself,

to give us Spock

You did not feel this sacrifice a vain or empty one, 

and we will not debate your profound wisdom at these proceedings 

Of our friend

We can only say this: 

Of all the souls we have encountered in our travels, 

yours was the most ... 

human

External Links:

"The Most Human: Reconciling with My Father, Leonard Nimoy," a new memoir by Adam Nimoy.

"765874" by OTOY

(It's best to just watch this four-part series and not ask any questions about how they were made until you finish, if at all. Just accept these pieces as they are, as high art, as filmmaking, as storytelling, then watch them and walk away satisfied.

If you are curious about how and why they were made, and the tremendous work and love that went into them, the story is amazing)

   

 "765874 - Memory Wall" by OTOY

   

 "765874 - Regeneration" by OTOY

   

 "765874 - Unification" by OTOY 

Kirk and Spock get the final goodbye they never had on screen.

 

Leonard Nimoy's Oral History from the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass.

"Sur­viv­ing Leonard Nimoy’s Super­hu­man Salute"

I'm performing at the I Heart Pluto Festival, whose keynote speakers are Adam Nimoy, Dr. Alan Stern and David Levy

On Feb. 15, 2025, Lowell Observatory and the Orpheum Theater will present A Night of Discovery, commemorating the 95th anniversary of Clyde Tombaugh’s discovery of Pluto and the 10th anniversary of the New Horizons mission to explore this icy world. This is the keynote event of the 6th annual I Heart Pluto Festival, with the theme “To Boldly go Beyond New Horizons.”

Adam Nimoy, left, sporting “Spock ears” with his father, Leonard Nimoy. Photo by Adam Nimoy

The evening will feature an exclusive conversation with distinguished guests Adam Nimoy, a television director and son of the late actor Leonard Nimoy.

Adam Nimoy

Dr. Alan Stern (Principal Investigator of the New Horizons Mission to Pluto), 

Sol Alan Stern is an American engineer, planetary scientist and space tourist. He is the principal investigator of the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Chief Scientist at Moon Express

and comet-hunting legend David Levy. David Eicher, Editor-in-Chief of Astronomy magazine, will moderate this discussion on how scientific exploration inspires humanity.

David Howard Levy, a Canadian amateur astronomer, science writer and discoverer of comets and minor planets, who co-discovered Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 in 1993.

Nimoy’s father starred in the iconic Star Trek television show, Stern led the New Horizons mission that revolutionized our understanding of Pluto, and Levy co-discovered — with legendary Flagstaff scientists Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker — Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which collided with Jupiter in 1994. Each of these events captured the imagination of people around the world and spurred widespread curiosity about space and its exploration.

Following this discussion, Adam Nimoy will sign copies of his new book, "The Most Human: Reconciling with My Father, Leonard Nimoy" and the entire panel will also sign event posters. Books and posters will be available for purchase at the Orpheum throughout the evening.

Lowell Observatory Executive Director Dr. Amanda Bosh says, “We are pleased to join the Flagstaff community in celebrating our Pluto heritage and this esteemed group of presenters will inspire our imaginations to boldly go beyond our little corner of the solar system.”

Additional presentations and events during A Night of Discovery include:

Arizona State Rep. Justin Wilmeth will discuss the bill he introduced that declared Pluto as Arizona’s official state planet in 2024.

• Christopher Fox Graham, longtime editor of the Sedona Red Rock News and a noted slam poet, will read two poems he wrote honoring Pluto and Leonard Nimoy
• Lowell Observatory Historian Kevin Schindler will recount the story of Clyde Tombaugh’s discovery of Pluto on February 18, 1930, and how he ended up at the Orpheum on that momentous evening
• Flagstaff Mayor Becky Daggett and Coconino County Supervisor Patrice Horstman will read proclamations celebrating this year’s I Heart Pluto Festival
• FlagTagAZ will set up their popular axe-throwing cage just outside the Orpheum
• Lowell Observatory’s Starry Skies Shop will offer Pluto-themed merchandise for sale
• A Pluto-themed beer, created especially for this year’s I Heart Pluto Festival by Mother Road Brewing Company, will be available. Additional beverages, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, as well as food will also be available for purchase throughout the evening

Doors open to the public at 6pm, with programs commencing at 7pm.

General admission tickets, as well as a VIP option that provides access to a private reception at 5pm with the presenters prior to the main program, are available at

wl.seetickets.us/event/i-heart-pluto-a-night-of-discovery/629870?afflky=OrpheumTheater

Background of the I Heart Pluto Festival

Flagstaff is often referred to as the “Home of Pluto” due to its significant contributions to research of this icy world. These efforts include Percival Lowell’s early searches for a ninth planet, “Planet X”; Clyde Tombaugh’s discovery of Pluto on February 18, 1930; Jim Christy’s detection of Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, in 1978; the first observation of Pluto’s atmosphere in 1988; early maps of Pluto’s surface; the New Horizons flyby of the Pluto system in 2015, and more. 

To celebrate this rich heritage, Lowell Observatory inaugurated the I Heart Pluto Festival in 2020. This community event is held annually on or near February 18. 

About Lowell Observatory

Founded in 1894, Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, is a prestigious nonprofit research institution renowned for its historic and groundbreaking discoveries, including the first evidence of the expanding universe and the discovery of Pluto. Today, Lowell's astronomers utilize global ground-based and space telescopes, along with NASA spacecraft, for diverse astronomical and planetary science research. The observatory hosts more than 100,000 visitors annually for educational tours, presentations, and telescope viewing through a suite of world-class public telescopes.

I'm performing at the I ❤ Pluto Festival on Feb. 18, 93 years after Pluto was discovered from Flagstaff's Lowell Observator

I'm honored that Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff has asked me to perform the poems "To the Planet Formerly Known as Pluto" and "Clyde Tombaugh" at the 2023 I ❤ Pluto Festival at the Orpheum Theater on Feb. 18.

I'll be sharing the stage with Lowell Observatory Historian Kevin Schindler, who will relive Clyde Tombaugh’s day of discovering Pluto, 93 years ago.

The keynote is Astronaut Nicole Stott, who flew with the space shuttle Discovery on missions STS-128 and STS-133, space shuttle Atlantis on STS-129 and twice to the Internation Space Station on Expedition 20 and Expedition 21. Stott will talk about her career and wrote a book "Back to Earth: What Life in Space Taught Me About Our Home Planet – And Our Mission to Protect It."

She creatively combines the awe and wonder of her spaceflight experience with her artwork to inspire everyone’s appreciation of our role as crewmates here on Spaceship Earth.

She is a veteran NASA Astronaut with two spaceflights and 104 days as a crewmember on both the International Space Station (ISS) and the Space Shuttle. Personal highlights of her time in space include performing a spacewalk (10th woman to do so), flying the robotic arm to capture the first free-flying HTV, painting a watercolor (now on display at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum), working with her international crew on science that is all about improving life on Earth, and of course the life changing view of our home planet. She is also a NASA Aquanaut. In preparation for spaceflight she was a crew member on an 18-day saturation dive mission at the Aquarius undersea laboratory.

Nicole believes that the international model of peaceful and successful cooperation we have experienced in the extreme environments of space and sea holds the key to the same kind of peaceful and successful cooperation for all of humanity here on Earth.

On her post-NASA mission, Nicole is a co-founder of the Space for Art Foundation — uniting a planetary community of children through the awe and wonder of space exploration and the healing power of art.

"Dear Pluto"

By Christopher Fox Graham

April 20, 2012

To the planet formerly known as Pluto,

Though we will never meet

I think I know you

I am a speck of organic matter

standing on the surface of your sister

my people and I

are converted from ice and dust

electrified into existence

by the mere circumstances

of your sister Earth and nephew Moon

dancing with tide pools

when they were still in their infancy

mere molecules slammed together

and held onto each other in strings

which took billions of years

to mistake themselves in their reproduction

to form this all-too-young boy

sending you this letter

forgive my impetuousness, dear Pluto

but compared to you,

I only have a second

before this organic matter caves in on itself

becomes dust and water to form something new

all I have is my voice

and I beg you to listen

because although we will never meet

I think I know you

I’m not sure if you will receive this letter

In the time it takes to reach you,

I could bounce between here and the sun 16 times

measured on your timescale

my country is not even a year old yet

You’re farther away from the sun

than any of your siblings

and while the rest of those planets circulate in lockstep

in the same elliptical orbit

yours is full of highs and lows

as you rise above the plane

and drop beneath it

because you’re either bipolar

of just refuse to conform

be glad you’ve been able to do it so long

here, those who are different

either by choice or accident

wind up getting bullied, brutalized or crucified

and while I could explain what those words mean

let’s hope that by the time one of us stands on your surface

we’ve forgotten what they mean, too

At Lowell Observatory in the hills overlooking Flagstaff

astronomer Clyde Tombaugh picked you out from the black

he watched you wander at the edge of the solar system

and noted how you keep your distance

from everyone else like you

I know what it feels like to be alone, too

there are times when people here

believe the sun is so far away they don’t feel warm anymore

and they stare out into the black

and wonder what’s like to just let go

I’m glad you’ve stayed with us, dear Pluto

you show us that even when the universe is terrifying cold

there’s some light to hold on to

some reason to keep moving

and even out there you and your moon Charon

prove you can find love anywhere

since we began to worship stars

we have followed your siblings

the rocky worlds, the gas giants

to us, if they were bigger than an asteroid or moon

and weren’t furnaces like the sun,

they were a planet

deserving the name of a god

an astrological house

and a certain amount of inexplicable reverence

you were nine children of a yellow sun

on the rural edge of the galaxy

but now because your size doesn’t fit new rules

the International Astronomical Union on my world

has decided you are no longer a planet

you don’t meet the qualifications anymore

you no longer govern an astrological house

they took you away from you were to us

because some ink on paper said you didn’t matter anymore

they put you a box labeled “dwarf planets” or “Plutoids”

only to be ostracized from your brothers and sisters

by faceless strangers at the stroke of pen

here, we label people too,

segregate them into boxes

based on the color of their skins

or which one of those gods they called out to while dying

or whether they love someone with the same or different parts

or in what way they their throats make noises to communicate

or even by where they were born

as if point of origin means anything

on a planet spinning 1,600 kilometers per second,

where specks like me have wandered to every part of it

tell me, dear Pluto

can you see the borders of our nations from out there?

it seems that’s all we can see down here sometimes

can you tell us apart?

if we one day reach you

dig our fingers into your dirt

would you care about what language we used

to tell each other 

how beautiful the moment was?

Dear Pluto,

I know what it feels like to be small

I’m still a little boy, too

playing grown-up games

wondering what happens

when there’s nothing left to orbit anymore

Though we will never meet

you don’t have to answer this letter if it ever reaches you

but I think you know me,

I am a tiny voice on your sister Earth

and you are Pluto, the ninth planet of the sun

"Clyde Tombaugh"

A companion poem to "Dear Pluto"

January 27, 2016

The Kansas boy stares into the sky

counting stars with his fingers

pretending he can touch each one

playing piano keys with constellations

the spheres make music most us will never hear

but he orchestrates symphonies

oboes in Orion

clarinets in Cancer

violins in Virgo

percussion rumbling off supernova timpanies

snare drums on the skin of black holes

while spinning quasars keep perfect rhythm

the boy, now a teen measures stars with his telescopes

built from leftover parts

shaping steel and mirrors

to bend the light down into his hands

he wants to hold the weight of stardust 

in his palm

the boy, now a man,

works on Mars Hill

the evening shift at Lowell Observatory

scouring the images for differences

one single speck out of place

but these were skies he could paint from memory

on a night like tonight

a cold February

the man became a boy again

when he found a spot 

hide-and-seeking with him

telling him the stars and planets were looking back at us

an undiscovered instrument 

making music he was the first to hear

a ninth symphony he held for a moment

heard alone, echoing in solitary discovery

before he shared it with the world

76 years later,

nine years after his death

mankind's ship in a bottle

broke the bonds of earth to reach out

and find New Horizons

in the cold dark of space

in a case no bigger than heart of a boy

now 2.97 billion miles from Kansas

from Mars Hill

from our entire history

are the ashes of the man who first heard the music

after six years alone in the dark

he traveled farther than anyone in history

to visit a world unseen by human eyes

and last July, the man became a boy again

matching his imagination to the globe in front of him

visiting an undiscovered country held for a moment

a solitary discovery

before he shared it with the world

at that distance, signals and light take 4 and half hours to reach home

in those hours, 

Clyde Tombaugh,

you had a world captivated in the silence

waiting 4 billion years

for someone to visit

what did you talk about?

did she ask 

what the sun feels like 

when so much closer?

how it warms your skin in summer?

did she tell you her story?

what it’s like to be so far away, alone in night?

how her years pass in centuries?

did you tell her about us?

about Kansas

about Mars Hill

about what it feels like to hold stardust in your palm?

did you tell her there were 7 billion boys and girls back home

waiting to see her for the first time?

was she eager to meet you since she first saw you

playing hide and seek with your telescopes

or counting stars with your fingers

or did she just sing a song?

one half of an unfinished duet

a harmony you already knew

something slow and beautiful

a secret 

only two lovers 

can understand

Astronaut Nicole Stott, from right; Alden Tombaugh, son of Pluto discoverer Clyde Tombaugh; Alden's wife Cherylee Tombaugh; poet Christopher Fox Graham; Athena Zelda Nebula Skye Sylvia Diana Fox Graham; and Kevin Schindler, historian of Lowell Observatory, who organized the Night of Discovery event at the Orpheum Theater in Flagstaff.
I was honored to perform poems about Pluto and Clyde Tombaugh. Alden was very complimentary and asked for copies (which I had pre-printed and shared with Kevin, Alden and Nicole).

Athena had a great time and ate loads of food. Lowell's senior astronomer also announced a 2,430-km diameter asteroid between Jupiter and Mars is now officially called (28724) Stott.