Interview by Zoë Brigley
I wanted to emphasise the tradition of voyaging of slipping over the horizon to end up God-knows-where and white space was important for adding drama
A Voyage Round The Moon
After John Gohorry
and as the voices crackled
then died
the craft disappeared
on the far side
all contact
lost
the memory of pen clips and Lucky Strikes
marooned
on the dark side of the iceberg-moon
a ghost ship with no pilot but Earth
speeding
through the dead sea of space
over the static
Arkansas and then Connecticut returned
sweating
into keyboards and VDUs
as the just in time coded Descent Propulsion System
counted down
from thirteen
to BURN
one chance
in a million
that the mortal pod
would not spiral into the sun
only mariners
know the map’s bruised flank perfect darkness the silence of stars
the lifeboat made it home
to nylon shirts
a wet shave
Moon Pie
and the true meaning of solitude
Could you tell us about the dedication to a poet: ‘After John Gohorry’?
The inspiration was the title poem from John Gohorry’s 1985 book “A Voyage Round The Moon” a collection that deserves to be more widely known. John was something of a mentor to me when I started writing poetry; not only was he a good critic, but his dedication to poetry was an example, day in and day out beavering away at his craft; it never left him until his death late in 2021. It was at that point that I took up some of his old poems; an act of remembrance after sudden loss: it had only been a couple of years previously that I had introduced him to my publishers Arenig Press. My version of his poem re-uses a phrase or two and the broad outline of the tale, but I’m strict when it comes to naming my sources and it’s always tricky to gague how much to mine the original: you don’t want the whole thing to collapse on top of you! I’ve since had a couple of other “After JG” poems published; I do hope people will look him up.
Space is a frequent theme for poetry. Do you think our attitude to space has changed since the first moon mission?
I was at primary school at the time of the aborted Apollo 13 mission. I remember that our class was interrupted by the teacher telling us that the astronauts had returned safely, an outcome that had seemed remote to our parents, as they drifted through perfect darkness and silence on the far side of the moon. After that, there were more moon landings but a certain confidence was lost, especially after the Space Shuttle disaster. Elon Musk and others seem to have revived our interest and want to cloak themselves as buccaneers. It’s not quite the same. I don’t think out attitude to space has changed that much; it’s still “the great out there” almost too much to get our heads round. I’m sure astronauts will once again become space mariners and daring missions will be launched; it will be good to remind ourselves that we are almost meaningless specks when measured against the size of the universe.
Could you tell me something about the interesting form of this poem on the page?
I normally start a new poem in couplets; it seems to suit my pared down style and I end up with a series of thought-notes, which sometimes suit, but can often be expanded upon. I then consider if a different form would be better and this was the case with A Voyage Round The Moon.
Noting the derivation of astronaut (star sailor) I wanted to emphasise the tradition of voyaging of slipping over the horizon to end up God-knows-where and white space was important for adding drama, as in the stand-alone line “the craft disappeared” – and then I thought the more “white” the better, working against the darkness of outer space as well as accentuating disconnect and solitude.
The poem is in lower case except for some nouns and commands; higher case needed to be sparse for impact and was used to remind what waited below them on planet earth, should they return. I chose some descending stanzas to signify descent and I was pleased when I hit on returning the last line “of solitude” to the LH margin. The astronauts might back to base, but who can understand what they’ve been through? They might as well still be on the dark side of the moon.