Michael Longley
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 anular limbs of creatures –
Lost minerals colouring
The initial letter, the stance.
