Robert Minhinnick: from The Porthcawl Preludes

Dogfish

I am sprockled
        Like a foxglove,
             My teeth
A silversmith's hammers.
Yet, like you, I will be overwhelmed
By the riptide in the blood.

Basking Shark

There is an ocean on the moon, I'm told.
A blue ocean of dust, aeons old.
Perhaps there are sharks there, basking in the swell.
Yeah. Moonsharks in moondust. Who can tell?

Shag

Dark little abbot on your rock,
You will have to preach louder than that.
These days the congregation is a long way out.


'The Porthcawl Preludes' is a sequence in After the Hurricane (2002). Minhinnick is expert at moving among registers: perhaps he gains inspiration from some contemporary American poets, but his voice is very individual.