Murray Lachlan Young: A Tribute To Patrick Moore

The man who made maps of the Moon.
A tribute to Sir Patrick Moore.

Batty eccentric, Gentleman amateur
Clipped English tones, of an era gone by
Dottiest ‘boffin’ and Crusty old Bachelor
Pipe in your mouth and a glass in your eye

Terrible golfer, pussycat stroker,
Right-wing and radical, militant stoker
Serving the masses with lunar crevasses
Around for so long, gone away far too soon
With an eminent place in our knowledge of space

As the man who made maps of the moon
The moon
As the man who made maps of the moon

You juggled gravity, built an observatory
Gave a fried egg as a cosmic analogy
Served up the feast well aware of the joke
As we stared with you heavenward, viewing the yolk

Heavenly broker, grey matter poker
Martian and minstrel and avid Pipe smoker
A voice and a knack with a rat a tat, tat
Drilling deep in our minds to the great cosmic tune
With dress sense to match, while you lifted the latch

As the man maps who made of the moon
The moon
As the man who made maps of the moon

Memories of empire, thoughts of old England
Fade further now, as your atoms disperse
In the final great joke of our temporariness
And the black hole you left in our own universe

Where do atheists go when they no longer are?
When they pack up their trunk at the end of the show
One could paraphrase you when you talked of the stars
‘As in so many cases, we simply don’t know’

With the feats of: Gagarin and Armstrong and all?
Amplified to the skies in the infinity’s thrall?
Yes you stayed for so long but you left far too soon
Yet your legacy orbits our own consciousness

In the maps that you made of the moon
The moon
From the man who made maps of the moon

Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore: 4th March 1923 - 10th December 2012.

Thought this was wonderful.
Thanks to Murray for sending me the text.

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