2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the first Space Station, established 2 years after the first moon landing, 412 years after Galileo made his first telescopic observations of the skies, and 160 years since William Leitch, Scottish astronomer, naturalist and mathematician wrote his essay on the possibility of rocket powered space flight. Poetry also has the power to take us to new places, lifting off from the known world to explore beyond earth’s horizon, or making what we think we know strange again.  We’ve put together a selection of poems which you can climb aboard and explore with.

Speech balloon - Imtiaz Dharker
The Full Indian Rope Trick - Colette Bryce
The Missing - Roger Robinson
A Sign at CERN - Andrew Wynn Owen
The English Astronaut - Simon Armitage
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