The poet was a Mr. Sxx Yxxxxxx, and he wrote the poem in anger over Hynek's apparent cover-up of the the Dexter-Hillsdale, Michigan UFO sightings of 1966. He felt, as did many, that Hynek knew for a fact that those Michigan UFOs were real extraterrestrial craft and was explaining them away as swamp gas to please his handlers in the Air Force. The poet's anger is entirely misplaced, in my opinion, which makes the poem even more fun. But you can't blame the guy for coming up with a truly creative way to vent his anger....
"Martian Gas"
In the midst of the twentieth century,
when man reached for the stars
And probed the void with telescopes
and inter-planet cars
And sought communications
with life beyond our own,
We found we still had earth-men
who feared the great unknown.
Scientist, astronomer and physicist but fair;
Yet, Air Force Apologist, most ex' trordinaire.
"Deny, debunk, deplore, decry the witness of your eyes.
Saucer-sighters are but fools delighting in their lies."
Mortal man is not prepared
for inter-stellar strife.
Leave him to the ignorance
of just this earthly life.
Just as priests reserve the faith,
scientists hide the plan;
Martian conquest needs no help
from ordinary man.
Poor Sxx. He couldn't have known that Hynek kept a collection of all the sarcastic, satirical poems, cartoons and diatribes directed at him in the wake of the swamp gas case. Far from hurting Hynek's feelings, the attacks helped him keep things in perspective, and he was actually quite proud of them.
A lesson for us all, eh?
