Mais la visée est ultramontaine, la perspective ouverte. Les coques noires qui transportent la tourbe du Connemara sont sœurs des embarcations homériques ; Carna évoque Ithaque (Turf boats, p. 24) et l'Atlantique se fond dans Thalassa (Thalassa, p. 21). L'aviron qui donne son titre au recueil fend l'espace et le temps, et c'est au terme du voyage seulement qu'il se fait entendre, For only then will you need to tell and know / that the sea is immense and unfathomable, / that the oar that pulls / against the wave / and with the wave / is everything (Oar, p. 20).

EXTRAIT

Listening Clay There are sounds that we can, and do, trust ; a gale in the trees, the soft click of stones, where the tide falls back, a baby crying in the night. No one has ever mocked these sounds, or tried to comprehend them. They are too common to be bought or sold, they were here before the word, and have no significance in law. Endlessly repeated, immutable, they are sounds without a history. They comfort and disturb the clay part of the heart. ☐ p. 53