The cleric-poet Andrew Young describes a fishy phenomenon with his customary close observation and original use of language.

The piece can be found in his Selected Poems (Carcanet, £9.95).

THE SALMON-LEAP

Leaves, and not birds, now flit,

Brighter than yellow wagtail and coal-tit,

Or on the water lie

Making a sunset of the fishes' sky.

Autumn for salmon-trout

Is spring, and Io Hymen boulders shout,

Spate drawing them to spawn

Where on high hills the river keeps its dawn.

From rock-lipt lynn to lynn,

Shaking the ferns and grasses with their din,

The cascades overflow

And pour in pools to rise as boiling snow;

Tossing their bodies bare

The salmon-trout are seen tasting our air,

For stronger is the flood

That rages in their few small drops of blood.