Moon-Whales by Ted Hughes
I picked up Moon-Whales and Other Poems by Ted Hughes from the library after I learned of its existence (yay!) via Andrew Smith’s Moondust. Here’s the title poem.
Moon-Whales
By Ted Hughes
They plough through the moon stuff
Just under the surface
Lifting the moon’s skin
Like a muscle
But so slowly it seems like a lasting mountain
Breathing so rarely it seems like a volcano
Leaving a hole blasted in the moon’s skin
Sometimes they plunge deep
Under the moon’s plains
Making their magnetic way
Through the moon’s interior metals
Sending the astronaut’s instruments scatty.
Their music is immense
Each note hundreds of years long
Each complete tune a moon-age
So they sing to each other unending songs
As unmoving they move their immovable masses
Their closed eyes ecstatic
