The poet Sappho, known for her word play and hyperbole, is said to have written about Selene and her longing for Endymion in the early 6th century. Selene is the goddess of the moon. She fell in love with the mortal shepherd, Endymion, and drove her moon chariot across the heavens to visit her love whilst he slept.

On 14th November 2016 I was on a surfing holiday at the most eastern point of Australia, Byron Bay, and witnessed the biggest super moon in almost 70 years rise over the ocean whilst dolphins and whales swum below the cliffs. This spectacular super moon is called a perigee, the name for when the moon’s orbit is closest to the Earth giving it the illusion of being enormous. I sat on the clifftop and was inspired. The poem I wrote is called Perigee and was the result of landscape, mythology and awe colliding with my pen.

My poem and one of the photos I took at Byron were selected for publication by Cool Rock Repository for their Luna Expo. Cool Rock is an online storage facility dedicated to literary and geological junctions.

Image: Sunrise and moon, Warrandyte