The Tuesday Poem

Jacob Polley

A Jar of Honey

You hold it like a lit bulb,
a pound of light,
and swivel the stunned glow
around the fat glass sides:

it's the sun, all flesh and no bones
but for the floating knuckle
of honeycomb
attesting to the nature of the struggle.

From 'The Brink',  Picador

Jacob Polley is a young poet who was born and brought up in Cumbria - my home county.  He's been getting a lot of recognition for his first two collecions - The Brink and Little Gods, and he's also written a novel 'Talk of the Town'.  I like this poem for the close-up observation of things -  it's as if he's using a zoom lens.  I'd never looked at a honeycomb in a jar quite like this before.
His website is at  http://www.jacobpolley.com/

Comments

  1. Wonderful! Thank you for posting this. Off to check out his website.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love the brevity of this poem, and how it literally shines.

    --T. in Seattle

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh it glows! and the punch of the 'floating knuckle' and the 'the struggle' - who would have thought? A honeycomb! Wonderful. Thanks Kathleen. p.s. how lucky you are to live in the Lake District.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts