Stellar Poems Win National Competition
When I look out at the sky each night
I let my imagination take flight
The opening lines of one of the winning entries to a national scientific poetry competition speak for many of the two thousand poets who submitted entries. The poem, written by Hugo Small, Southampton, won joint first prize (4-7 year olds) in the “universe” competition, part of National Science Week 2005.
Entrants had been invited to submit poems on the themes of time, space and energy, to tie in with Einstein Year. Author Terry Pratchett, astronomer Sir Patrick Moore and the Muppet scientists Beaker and Dr Honeydew were amongst those who wrote poems for the competition.
‘Science, and in particular physics, is very poetic in its description of the natural world,’ says Roland Jackson, Chief Executive of the BA (British Association for the Advancement of Science), which has been running the competition. ‘Science and poetry are both valid and complementary ways of describing the world around us. For National Science Week, we wanted to engage people’s artistic sides as well as their scientific curiosity. Everyone has a poem up their sleeve; this much is clear from the phenomenal number we received.’
To enable the winners to take their stargazing beyond pen and paper, they will each receive a telescope, courtesy of PPARC.
