EPSS Poetry

A curated poetry space connected to UCLA Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences (EPSS) and the UCLA Meteorite Museum. Here you’ll find poems written by scientists, students, and friends of the department — with space for guest voices as well.

Explore:

All Poems — the full collection
Winners — selected highlights and featured entries
Magazine — interviews, essays, and poetry-in-science
Submit a poem — share your writing (student & community)

Browse poems View winners Magazine Submit a poem

About this collection

Institution: UCLA EPSS
Connected to: Meteorite Museum
Primary focus: Poems by scientists
with invited community submissions
New section: Magazine
interviews, essays, and poetry–science stories

Featured interview

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No published interviews yet. Add one in Django Admin (Magazine Posts → Interview → Published).

Latest articles

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Article

Earth, Cosmos, and the Language of Scale: Why Scientists Keep Writing Poems

2025-12-31

From minerals to galaxies, scale reshapes the mind. This piece explores why working with vast time and space naturally pushes scientists to…

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Article

The Hidden Curriculum of Grad School: Attention, Silence, and the Long Experiment

2025-12-31

Graduate school teaches more than methods. It teaches attention—how to focus, endure uncertainty, and notice details. Those same skills qui…

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Article

When a Data Point Feels Like a Metaphor: Finding Poetry in Research

2025-12-31

A scientist’s daily work is full of patterns—some statistical, some human. This piece explores how research routines quietly train the mind…

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Winners poems

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Winners (2023)

“““360”” ”

2025-12-19

Author: Jonathan Riggs Year: 2023 Award: 3rd Place “It’s just a rock,” we sneer and stare into our phone but if you really think a…

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Winners (2023)

Meteor Haiku Number 1

2025-12-19

Author: Susan McClellan Year: 2023 Award: 2nd Place shooting star up high meteor streaks through the sky fleeting beauty, bye.

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Winners (2023)

Message in a Bottle

2025-12-19

Author: Steven Desch Year: 2023 Award: st Place The Milky Way, a spiral arm: collapsing gas, it's getting warm... Here stars ar…

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Latest poems

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“““360”” ”

Winners (2023)

2025-12-19 12:38

Author: Jonathan Riggs Year: 2023 Award: 3rd Place “It’s just a rock,” we sneer and stare i…

Read poem

Meteor Haiku Number 1

Winners (2023)

2025-12-19 12:32

Author: Susan McClellan Year: 2023 Award: 2nd Place shooting star up high meteor streaks thr…

Read poem

Message in a Bottle

Winners (2023)

2025-12-19 12:30

Author: Steven Desch Year: 2023 Award: st Place The Milky Way, a spiral arm: collapsing gas…

Read poem