food for thought

Michael Longley

Irish Poetry

Impasto or washes as a rule: Tuberous clottings, a muddy Accumulation, internal rhyme – Fuchsias droop towards the ground, The potato and its flower.

Or a continuing drizzle, Specialization of light, Bog-water stretched over sand In small waves, elisions – The dialect of silence.

Or, sometimes, in combination Outlining the bent spines, The angular limbs of creatures – Lost minerals colouring The initial letter, the stance.

from An Exploded View (1973)