The Biology of Caves
By onemorething
- 4612 reads
Pale troglobites have no need
for colour or shadow,
blind cave fish have abandoned their eyes
over aeons, attuned only to the messages
of movement murmured in subterranean lakes.
Some are white angels who can climb the fury
of a waterfall, others are transparent enough
to reveal the adaptations of their biology -
as I imagine the dull pulse of my own heart,
visible and palpable from behind my ribs.
I have changed too in undisturbed survival
when anchored to the long wait of sunless pauses,
and I have sensed the body of a past self
in the night beside me, felt the density
of its existence: awake, the cut quickens
in the moment of an empty reach, as in caves,
where, tested by the tentative legs of isopods,
the stone remembers the wounds
that water has sliced in slow rivulets.
Yet there are long-departed starlit memories
tunnelled within me, that seek retrieval
from their interment because even when there is no light,
I remind myself, neither to make a friend
nor an enemy of the darkness.
Image of a blind cave fish from wikimedia commons:
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Comments
I love the juxtaposition of
I love the juxtaposition of the adapted creatures and the adapted life of the narrator - beautifully done
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This is our Poem of the week
This is our Poem of the week - Congratulations!
It's also our Facebook and Twitter Pick of the Day
Please share/retweet if you enjoyed it as much as I did.
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An interesting and revealing
An interesting and revealing poem about the the physiological adaptation of those hypogean creatures, the blind cave fish, to darkness which revives memories of one's own metamorphosis.
Stylish as ever.
Luigi x
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Hi Rachel,
Hi Rachel,
I can only echo insert's and luigi's comments. I admire the way you're able to weave together your own thoughts and those of these mysterious cave fish.
Inspiring as always.
Jenny.
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I love this, it's so classy
I love this, it's so classy and clean. 'Sunless pauses' and 'blind cave fish'. It's lovely to read and pure quality.
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Lovely to read - will have
Lovely to read - will have another go... Inter(n)ment or interment? I love rocks and stones in a poem...all the elements here...for the remembering, the ending patient and detached enough to feel wise words indeed! The cacoon of a cave poem - all these three fishes know what they're doing! (Wondered what a deep lake equivalent of a symbolic butterfly in a poem might be? Electric squids?! THey are great though!! I wonder if anyone has written an ace electric squid poem? I digress! Sorry :) Enjoyed your poem!)
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Such beautiful language here.
Such beautiful language here. Enjoyed.
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I like the idea of exploring
I like the idea of exploring other creatures sensory experience, how we adapt and how our environment forms us in such a rich ground for the imagination
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