Rachel McCarthy's poem here below whispers of her background as a scientist (former senior climate scientist at the Met Office
Hadley Centre, where she specialised in the impacts of climate change, disaster
risk reduction and science communication).
It always adds an edge to a poem when two apparently divergent disciplines come together. Hope you all enjoy this one.
Ghost Shark
Millions of years on
Megalodon swims its half ghost
through the ether of museum-space
part-shark part-reconstructed cartilage
top-jaw hoisted for a pig-eyed profile
made an example of.
But who’s to say unequivocally
that at this exact moment she’s not
holed-up in the wreck of an old war
nursing in the cold vault of our history
or charnel-mouthed over its huddled bodies
who’s to say there’s no glint in her dead eyes.
After all where better to see-out extinction
than from beyond the last glimmer of sunlight
where her movements sound like whispers
in our deep water soundings.
Who’s to say she isn’t just beyond our reach
Who’s to say she shouldn’t stay that way.
© Rachel McCarthy
from Element
Element won the Laureate's Choice award 2015 – picked by Carol Ann as marking ‘one of the brightest new voices in British Poetry...brilliantly bold.’
You can read more at www.rachelmccarthy.com.
Walking the Old Ways : nature, the bardic & druidic arts, holism, Zen, the ecological imagination
from BARDO
The stars are in our belly; the Milky Way
Is it a consolation
is star-stuff too?
– That wherever you go you can never fully disappear –
Tree, rain, coal, glow-worm, horse, gnat, rock.
Roselle Angwin
So many beautiful, sad poems. I love the rhythm of this one too.
ReplyDeleteYes. I like too the unexpectedness of the poem, and its ending in particular.
ReplyDeleteHow's Rosie?