Friday, March 23, 2007

Jonah -- Fish Academy

JONAH

A cream of phosphorescent light

Floats on the wash that to and fro

Slides round his feet – enough to show

Many a pendulous stalactite

Of naked mucus, whorls and wreaths

And huge festoons of mottled tripes

And smaller palpitating pipes

Through which a yeasty liquor seethes

Seated upon the convex mounds

Of one vast kidney, Jonah prays

And sings his canticles and hymns,

Making the hollow vault resound

God’s goodness and mysterious ways,

Till the great fish spouts music as he swims.


Aldous Huxley 1959

This is one of my favorite Jonah poems. Huxley paints a vivid viseral word picture and almost gets ones gag reflect going. It's can't have been fun being in fish school.

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