Jonah's Hands

This was written not long after Jonah's death, and originally published in London Magazine.  It is also in my pamphlet, Tiny Disturbances (Acumen).  Of my own poems, it is a favourite.

JONAH’S HANDS

Jonah Jones, sculptor, 1919 - 2004

Jonah’s hands make rock soft.

He stops on the Roman Steps,

Runs big-bulbed digits over Cambrian stone

As though over lover’s flesh

And presses with his palm,

Gently promising union.

And in the workshop

Is enacted the consummation,

In which mineral and animal couple

To make art; the miracle made

From mind through touch to object.

And on the traeth the whippet

Tears through the air, slate thin

On the wide hard sand,

The sculptor’s pet the art

Beyond the sculptor’s hand.