Wednesday, 8 December 2010

THE FLOATING ICEBERG’S SONG

We shall be posting from time to time poems that are dealing with the environment and with our responsibilities in the care of creation. Please let me know if you have any poems that you would like to submit.

We are indebted to Tessa Ransford for suggesting this wonderful poem .  Not Just Moonshine, Luath Press, is Tessa's new and selected poems from four decades published in 2008. The book can be found at selected bookstores. You can find more information about Tessa on her  website. .

THE FLOATING ICEBERG’S SONG


(news report: an iceberg the size of Hong Kong floats past the African coast)

Ahoy there, ahoy!

moored to Antarctica
over aeons
the rope broke and I drifted
away

no race round the world
I drip my ice-locked time
as I sail and melt

soon I’ll swim in the Mediterranean
and block the Suez canal

my waters will flow as judgement
a mighty stream in the desert

ahoy there in the shopping aisles
and the shipping lanes

don’t you see now

the planet floats like the Titanic in space
and can sink, can be utterly wrecked


Unpublished

Tessa Ransford

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