Artwork for podcast One Poem Only
Cliff by Ofelia ferch Rhos
Episode 15027th September 2025 • One Poem Only • Maggie Devers
00:00:00 00:01:51

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Cliff

Ofelia ferch Rhos

Salt spattered on chalk carves out
the rough-hewn shape of thought:
the cliff is a canvas where

they escape me, and become
mammoths on sandstone,
scattered by stick-figured spears.

Magpies perch listless as dew
and wing their words over the sea.
The water ripples their birdsong agon.

Clouds crowd in anticipation-
I am the heavens surrogate on earth
they would rapture me, and leave

the cliff empty as a forgotten age.
The stones know no different.
I am their occupying army.

I kick the stones,
kick the moss,
kick the cliff loose

so that landslipped rocks
chase down the incline.
The waves retreat-

capricious tide.
Arrogant as weeds.
Pretentious petrichor.

Dappled sun on dimpled sea
reaches over the horizon
like the old joke.

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