Alumnae Poets

Angela Acosta '17

Angela Acosta

Angela Acosta is a bilingual Latina poet and PhD Candidate in Iberian Studies at The Ohio State University. She won the 2015 Rhina P. Espaillat Award from West Chester University for her Spanish poem “El espejo”. Her poems have appeared in Eye to the TelescopeMacroMicroCosmPluma, The Blue Moth, and Panochazine. Her dissertation, teaching, and creative writing focus on recovering the legacies of early twentieth century Spanish women writers by providing new poems, translations, and analyses of their work.  

Select Poems

I am among the earthbound,  

ensconced within this terrestrial ecosystem 

never to set foot on another planet. 

 

I am in good company 

among the billions who inhabit spaceship Earth. 

All of humanity’s saints and sinners 

lay under my feet,  

covered in plants grown with the energy of Sol. 

 

I have no option to leave, 

no near-light speed travel, no hypersleep, 

pr the cold grip of the metal harness on my first off-world shuttle.  

 

What awaits our descendants in space 

requires careful planning, 

repairs and reparations, 

to heal the Earth for our descendants.  

 

May our children inherit the Earth, 

with its rich biomes and herds roaming the prairies,  

while a few brave souls sample alien oceans light years away.  

 

If the Earth is truly an oasis in space, 

then may we the Earthbound keep it safe, 

may it not merely be a hovel of misery 

of the unfortunate and underprivileged,  

but a viable option gifted from our ancestors.  

 

Acknowledgements: This poem first appeared in The Blue Moth. 

I am among the earthbound,  

ensconced within this terrestrial ecosystem 

never to set foot on another planet. 

 

I am in good company 

among the billions who inhabit spaceship Earth. 

All of humanity’s saints and sinners 

lay under my feet,  

covered in plants grown with the energy of Sol. 

 

I have no option to leave, 

no near-light speed travel, no hypersleep, 

pr the cold grip of the metal harness on my first off-world shuttle.  

 

What awaits our descendants in space 

requires careful planning, 

repairs and reparations, 

to heal the Earth for our descendants.  

 

May our children inherit the Earth, 

with its rich biomes and herds roaming the prairies,  

while a few brave souls sample alien oceans light years away.  

 

If the Earth is truly an oasis in space, 

then may we the Earthbound keep it safe, 

may it not merely be a hovel of misery 

of the unfortunate and underprivileged,  

but a viable option gifted from our ancestors.  

 

Acknowledgements: This poem first appeared in The Blue Moth.