At one with water in the sea ...

Books & Poetry

Monday January 12, 2015 Comments

Comments Print article

In Poet’s Corner this week, Adelaide Hills writer, composer and poet Rob Walker looks at the seemingly ubiquitous salt.

NaCl

Secret lover of the fresh-picked tomato
although of course your legal husband is Lot.

At one with water in the sea yet either may be
estranged, desalinated.

You yourself begat of sodium and chlorine,
the combustible and the mustard

Great War lung-dissolver, blurrer of vision
and pungency of public swimming pools.

OD and our thirst’s unslakable
your twang unmistakable

turning mouths inside out.
Too little, our nerves close down.

Saltlick of cattle
or lovers’ tongues.

Shake for me babe. I crave you
cubic astringent mouth pucker.

Rob Walker’s fourth collection of poetry, Tropeland, will be published by Five Islands Press in June. He has had poems appear in numerous journals and anthologies in Australia, the US and UK. He has also published short stories, and in collaboration with other artists, his work can be found on the Adelaide Zephyr String Quartet CD A Rain from the Shadows and at ccmixter.org

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to poetscorner@solsticemedia.com.au. A poetry book will be awarded to each contributor.

Make a comment View comment guidelines

Jump to next article

Support local arts journalism

Your support will help us continue the important work of InReview in publishing free professional journalism that celebrates, interrogates and amplifies arts and culture in South Australia.

Donate Here

Comments

Show comments

Will my comment be published? Read the guidelines.

. You are free to republish the text and graphics contained in this article online and in print, on the condition that you follow our republishing guidelines.

You must attribute the author and note prominently that the article was originally published by InReview. You must also inlude a link to InReview. Please note that images are not generally included in this creative commons licence as in most cases we are not the copyright owner. However, if the image has an InReview photographer credit or is marked as “supplied”, you are free to republish it with the appropriate credits.

We recommend you set the canonical link of this content to https://inreview.com.au/inreview/books-and-poetry/2015/01/12/at-one-with-water-in-the-sea/ to insure that your SEO is not penalised.

<h1>At one with water in the sea ...</h1>

<address><a href="https://inreview.com.au/contributors/compiled-by-john-miles/" class="author">Compiled by John Miles</a></address>
											
							In Poet’s Corner this week, Adelaide Hills writer, composer and poet Rob Walker looks at the seemingly ubiquitous salt.
<h4><a href="#nacl" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="nacl"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>NaCl</h4>
Secret lover of the fresh-picked tomato 
although of course your legal husband is Lot.
At one with water in the sea yet either may be 
estranged, desalinated.
You yourself begat of sodium and chlorine, 
the combustible and the mustard
Great War lung-dissolver, blurrer of vision 
and pungency of public swimming pools.
OD and our thirst’s unslakable 
your twang unmistakable
turning mouths inside out. 
Too little, our nerves close down.
Saltlick of cattle 
or lovers’ tongues.
Shake for me babe. I crave you 
cubic astringent mouth pucker.
Rob Walker’s fourth collection of poetry, Tropeland, will be published by Five Islands Press in June. He has had poems appear in numerous journals and anthologies in Australia, the US and UK. He has also published short stories, and in collaboration with other artists, his work can be found on the Adelaide Zephyr String Quartet CD A Rain from the Shadows and at ccmixter.org
Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to <a href="mailto:poetscorner@solsticemedia.com.au">poetscorner@solsticemedia.com.au</a>. A poetry book will be awarded to each contributor.
 
 
							This article is republished from <a href="https://inreview.com.au" target=_blank rel="canonical">InReview</a> under a Creative Commons licence. Read the <a href="https://inreview.com.au/inreview/books-and-poetry/2015/01/12/at-one-with-water-in-the-sea/" target=_blank rel="canonical">original article</a>.
							<link href="https://inreview.com.au/inreview/books-and-poetry/2015/01/12/at-one-with-water-in-the-sea/" rel="canonical">

<a href="https://inreview.com.au" target="_blank" rel="noopener">InReview</a> is an open access, non-profit arts and culture journalism project. Readers can <a href="https://artists.australianculturalfund.org.au/s/project/a2E9q0000008PVN/inreview-sa-20222023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">support our work with a donation</a>. Subscribe to InReview’s free weekly newsletter <a href="https://inreview.com.au/subscribe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
							<img src="https://inreview.com.au/pixel2.png?cc_article=at-one-with-water-in-the-sea" width="1" height="1">

Copied to Clipboard