Thursday, 30 July 2015

Mark Scrivener Poetry Blog no 64 Seahorses



SEAHORSES









This short poem was written many years ago after watching seahorses at the aquarium at Taronga Park Zoo, Sydney. I don't know if seahorses are still there but Sydney harbour is famous for having seahorses in it. The poem is not intended as an argument about theories of the origins of living things. I feel that rather than always arguing about theories (most of which are probably wrong to some degree) it is good to stand occasionally in silent wonder and look at the life around us.










                                       SEAHORSES



Behind the glass seahorses swim.



Long-nosed, horse-headed, with a spiralling tail,

so ineffectual and frail,

they move with whirring, tiny fins

on backs and head- so upright there,

like delicate and live chess knights,

like light-hearted, small, surrealistic jokes.




How strange life’s creativity

should dream these tiny, horse-like fish,

soft-grazing on the pastures of the sea.






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