IN THE ROCKPOOL

Kristian Evans

Midnight syllables on the black

water of the rock pool, whisper

of salt retreating into crystal

mind of limpet and gutweed,

untranslatable speech. I recognise

nothing in this mirror. Broken

shells and bones, a cloud of ink

remembering itself, articulating

a psalm of mineral health. When

all this is over I will run away.

I will run and I won’t look back.

Bladderwrack and barnacle Kabbalah,

digital sweat, micro-plastic alphabet.

Kristian Evans is a Welsh poet and editor, interested in ecological philosophy, animism and the history of magic. He has written several texts for performance, a chapbook of poems, Unleaving (HappenStance 2015) and Otherworlds a chapbook of non-fiction (with Zoё Brigley; Broken Sleep, 2021). He is the founding editor of MODRON, funded by a New Audiences Grant from Books Council of Wales. He is co-editor of the poetry anthology 100 Poems to Save the Earth, and he edited the Dwelling issue of Magma Poetry with Brigley and Rob A. Mackenzie. He was the judge for the poetry award of the Wales Book of the Year 2023.