Here is a poem from craft by Pete Haydon, published by Rainshadow (an imprint of Clouds of Magellan). craft is a book of poems about the making of boats, the losing of boats … poems that circle around small craft and the sea, with occasional forays into the darker deeps.

Feeling the curve

Nothing is straight, nor will be straight;
Design abhors a straightened line.
Draw it straight and life will curve it
Till it’s true, a true line.
A true line is sweet;
A sweet line is curved.
Feel its flank, 
a living thing,
That slips its subtle way
Through water’s almost nonsense,
Intuiting some meaning,
Held a flashing second,
Lost, recombined a million times
In the time it takes to tell.

Pete Haydon is a writer and musician. He is the author of the play The Crime of the Modern Mariner and lives in Aireys Inlet, Victoria.

Buy craft from Blarney Books, Booktopia