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/