So this is an easy enough task: sum up the entire universe, from the Big Bang through all the planets of the Solar System to asteroids and nebula and black holes.

And then do that in a way that children as well as adults can understand and appreciate.

OK, maybe it isn't that easy.

But that is where Astro Poetica began. And it is, thankfully, exactly where it seems to have ended in a collection of poetry written by me and illustrated by Jools Wilson.

Astro Poetica began as I sat back in my seat at the Planetarium in Liverpool's World Museum, listening to the accessible and inclusive narrative of John Moran, poetry began to form inside me. Looking up with the entire universe above me, I found the words shouting at me. I saw Saturn as a potter's wheel, I saw Mercury as a hot tempered child, I saw Jupiter as a giant beach ball.

It was an almost overwhelming experience. John's elegant and easy manner told me that I had to write some poems about Space and that I had to do it in a way children and adults alike could enjoy.

Whenever I discuss poetry, specifically the poetry I love, with friends, I hear the same thing: "I don't understand poetry, I don't know where to begin." Poetry, for many, has become something to decipher, something you have to "get". I tend to point people at e e cummings and tell them to just enjoy the language. Enjoy the feel of words as you say them. Watch out for images and phrases. Take it easy, take it slow. Find your own way.

Whilst I was writing Astro Poetica, all of this was in my mind. I knew that in addition to the poems, I wanted to write about how to read poetry. I wanted to give people a way in, an angle (my angle) about the things I was thinking as I wrote. I'd stress that this was just my view and that I was always open to learning how other people read.

Astro Poetica includes the poems, illustrations, a chapter which starts a discussion about reading, and a chapter about how to write your own poems.

It's been a huge undertaking but I think I've managed it. I'm proud of the writing and I think I have achieved a balance of accessible, thoughtful, funny and poignant.

Dom Conlon