Gagarin Jumped

Posted on August 8, 2011 by P Hodkinson

From that spinning capsule Gagarin jumped,
It twisted under his feet, tumbled away.
He knew just how far to trust technology,
Enough to get him there and nearly back.

There can be no return to some past state of grace.

Gagarin would realise this as he fought the controls,
Willing his jet to wing over the town.
Too low, too late to eject,
Locked on death’s trajectory.

A poem from Paul Tobin c.1980

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One Response to Gagarin Jumped

Paul Tobin

October 2, 2011 at 10:08 am

I remembered a poem I read years ago in an anthology- Frontier of Going edited by John Fairfax in 1969, published by Panther, I have the 1973 reprint.

George Barker
In Memory of Yuri Gagarin

“-at the death of

this small man the

stars threw down

a hand-

ful of dark years

and the moon with-

drew into her ro-

tating cave of shadows and

wept a little. The

Dog Star hid

its head

and the Leonids like

mice ran squeking

over the Zodiac. The

globe eyed ghosts of

our house of planets crept

out from cold lairs and

huddled together as

the ash of the dog that

died in the sky fled

to follow its
master this dead man

free in free

fall at last”

And Death

said “I take

him to me so

that no dishonour

can now or ever

accrue upon

this man or this name:

Yuri Gagarin”

I think that it illustrates just how universal the admiration and respect for Yuri were.