{"id":2419,"date":"2012-10-03T22:00:53","date_gmt":"2012-10-03T22:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/?p=2419"},"modified":"2017-12-02T23:37:22","modified_gmt":"2017-12-02T23:37:22","slug":"a-sci-fi-poem-for-national-poetry-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/2012\/10\/a-sci-fi-poem-for-national-poetry-day\/","title":{"rendered":"A sci-fi poem for National Poetry Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>space chaplain<\/h2>\n<p>by James McGonigal<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">~<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 175%;\">through the northern lights my eye caught beams<br \/>\nof bright and dark like the crown of horny rays<br \/>\nthe sun makes from a silvered cloud \u2014<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;though luminous these<br \/>\ndid not dim the clearness of our target in the Bear<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;but rose<br \/>\nradiating slightly out from the earth line<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 175%;\">in soft pulses of light<br \/>\none after another passing upwards<br \/>\narched in shape but waveringly and with the arch<br \/>\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;broken<br \/>\nthat seemed to float\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 not following the warp<br \/>\nof the sphere as falling stars appear to do<br \/>\nbut free \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 concentrical<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 175%;\">such busy workings of nature<br \/>\nindependent of the earth and stretched in a strain<br \/>\nof time not reckoned by days or years but simpler \u2014<br \/>\nas if correcting the preoccupations of the world<br \/>\nby being preoccupied only with\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and appealing to<br \/>\nand dated to\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the touchdown day of judgment \u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 175%;\">a witness to the Zone that fills me with delightful fear<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">~<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">~<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">~<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This poem is forthcoming in <strong>Where Rockets Burn Through: Contemporary Science Fiction Poems from the UK<\/strong> &#8211; edited by Russell Jones and published by Penned in the Margins in November 2012.<\/p>\n<p><center><img src=\"http:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/wp-content\/themes\/classic\/cover-images\/draft1_sm.jpg\" alt=\"draft cover\" align=\"center\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>James McGonigal<\/strong> is a Glasgow-based poet, editor and critic. He has published on Ezra Pound and Basil Bunting, Scottish religious poetry and Scots-Irish writing. Recent work includes his biography of Edwin Morgan, <em>Beyond the Last Dragon<\/em> (Sandstone Press, 2010, 2012), and <em>Cloud Pibroch<\/em> (Mariscat Press, 2010).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalpoetryday.co.uk\/\">National Poetry Day<\/a> is Thursday 4th October and this year&#8217;s theme is STARS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>space chaplain by James McGonigal ~ through the northern lights my eye caught beams of bright and dark like the crown of horny rays the sun makes from a silvered cloud \u2014 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;though luminous these did not dim the clearness of our target in the Bear &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;but rose radiating slightly out from the earth line [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,91],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2419"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16193,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419\/revisions\/16193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}