Poets have long been stargazers, moved by the strange infinities of the universe to translate them into metaphor and song. For 'Dark Matter', the third in the Gulbenkian Foundation s trilogy of poetry and science anthologies, leading poets were commissioned to create new work inspired by their discussions with eminent space scientists. Their meditations on the light and dark matters of the skies have been challenged and shaped by their encounter with the critical investigations of astrophysics, whether it s John Kinsella reflecting on the light echo of supernova 1987A, Antjie Krog recreating the symmetry of the HH212 gas jet or Paul Muldoon s jaunty take on the expanding universe. The commissioned works are complemented by the editors selection of well-known and lesser-known poems from across the ages: John Donne and Emily Dickinson share the stratosphere with Philip Larkin and Adrienne Rich in their explorations of the spaces beyond our world, their ability to make sense of these and to create art from the unknown.
