THE Welsh poet-cleric R S Thomas generally employs conventional punctuation, but here he abjures it to create a vivid seaside tableau.

The little word-painting can be found in his Collected Poems 1945-1990 (Phoenix Press, £14.99).

HARBOUR

a harbour with the

boats going in and out

at top speed their sirens

blowing and their funnels trailing

long smoke and the tousled

bluejackets of the waves emptying

their pockets to the wind's

hornpipe and far down

in the murky basements the turning

of bright bodies smooth

as a bell mermaids you

say but I say fish