Sunday, January 31, 2010
Alphabetical Sonnet
Found
Agnus Dei reliquary, arquebuses,
Awls and astrolabes, beads, bellows, buckles, breech-blocks,
Candle holders, collars, cords and crucifixes;
Dagger hilts and dishes; ewers, esmerils and flintlocks.
Gaiters, goatskins, goblets, gunner's rules and glasses;
Heddles, holsters; ingots, jug-spouts, keys; a lion mask;
Mallets, Ming, muskets; nails; an oriflamme of damask;
Pearls, pellets; querns, ramrods, rings, and silver tasses.
Spokes, shoes, shot, steelyards, shackles; two escudo pieces;
Toggles, tweezers, tambourines and taper-sticks;
Urns and ukeleles; vices, yokes, axes, adzes –
Not to mention the admiral's medallion,
Nor the golden chalice, nor the Eucharistic pyx;
All these were found on board the foundered Spanish galleon.
From Ciaran Carson's Collected Poems, a doorstop of a book, thick and solid as a brick. First published in Ireland in 2008 and now in the U.S. by Wake Forest University Press.