Fish Hauled in as Galaxies

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem

A poem casts its net, spreads wide across

Much more than sea, across the oceans, wide

Across the cosmos, snags the Southern Cross

And nebulae, beyond, much more implied

Than fish, than silver fish, than fish of gold.

The net drawn up has caught the universe

Entire, yes, death and all things oldest old,

The blonde of Marilyn, and tyrants worse

Than Stalin, priests turned into monsters, stars,

Black Holes and hummingbirds in hover hues

Of whirring iridescence.  Ships with spars

From Marianna Trench yield long-lost blues.

  Religion cannot do this, but the mind

    Of poetry is all inclined, aligned.

~ Phillip Whidden