First Glimpse of Iceland – Robin Boothroyd

First Glimpse of Iceland
after William Morris

Now the eye glides
across lava plains,
peopled with cairns,

and alights on tephra cones,
lava domes, basalt columns,
plumes of steam. Beyond,

are those mountains
of cloud or mountains
wreathed in cloud?

Every inch of earth
is stark, lethal,
blacker-than-raven

black. I grab my gloves,
disembark, and worry
my boots in the rubble.

.

.

Robin Boothroyd was born in Germany and grew up in England. His poems have been published online at The Bohemyth, DOG-EAR and M58, and in print with Biot and Magma. Meanwhile, a sequence of concrete poems about simultaneity, is forthcoming on Sine Wave Peak. Quintet for Wind and Light, a landscape poem in five parts, was crowdfunded over in 2016 and is available here. Robin’s website is thecoldtapsings.com and you can follow him on Twitter @rfboothroyd. His favourite word is pebble.