Here is my cosmological poem, inline for you to read:

Picture Houses

“Hath ye acquired thine ear toward Neptune?

Or envisioned Hellas Planitia of Mars?

A barren belly not thy fruits of Earth’s womb,

Nor thine shrill of Antarticas laboured breaths.

Stars intermittent plumes, a coronal magnificence,

Running as picture houses, height and depth.

Shall thou open ye nostrils to Andromeda?

Arms wide in loving embrace?

Do you knoweth Scuti?

Count then with fiery reddened hands its breadth,

Wilt tungsten hold strong as coals in its palm,

Or mighty diamond-sapphires liveth in its heart?”

Inspiration..

‘i had listened to recordings of asteroids, planets and solar winds quite some time ago. ..i got to thinking about Universe sounds as melodies.. pure music.’. My inspiration also derived from listening to blues acoustic guitar playing styles.

One of my favourite lines in “Picture Houses” is the image of fiery reddened hands—a way of imagining another star or even our Sun, as the hands measuring Scuti’s immense diameter. Much like establishing a horse’s height with human hands.

Again, my art is often recent ideas, thoughts or subconscious. In the past week I viewed draft horses. Heavy-bodied breeds like Shires, Belgian Draught and Percheron. Horses often feature in my social media reels feed. I went horse trekking up and over Welsh hills and woods when I was between ten to twelve years of age.

At the fish pond near my maternal Nan and Grandad’s, there were horses in a field I used to see as a boy.

My social media feed of horses.. this is why I included nostrils in the poem. The idea interconnects the sense of cosmic smells with the tremendous galloping speed of a galaxy. Racing Andromeda as if with reins.

The choice of Hellas Planitia came purely from my love of H.G. Wells writing. A play on word with depth, literal wells and the seemingly unfathomable facts we learn about the Universe.