"We Cast this Message," by Jimmy Carter

In 1977, the Voyager 1 spacecraft was launched into space, on a mission to explore our solar system, and eventually to surpass it. On board is a “Golden Record,” complete with music (including Mozart and Chuck Berry); the sounds of rain, crickets, and a kiss; human greetings in 55 languages — and this message from President Jimmy Carter, laid out here as a poem for your reading pleasure:

We cast this message into the cosmos.
It is likely to survive a billion years into our future,
when our civilization is profoundly altered
and the surface of the Earth may be vastly changed.
Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy,
some — perhaps many — may have inhabited planets
and spacefaring civilizations. If one such civilization
intercepts Voyager and can understand
these recorded contents, here is our message:

This is a present from a small distant world,
a token of our sounds, our science, our images,
our music, our thoughts, and our feelings.
We are attempting to survive our time
so we may live into yours. We hope someday,
having solved the problems we face,
to join a community of galactic civilizations.
This record represents our hope and our determination,
and our good will in a vast and awesome universe.

+ Jimmy Carter