Falling for a dolphin

This dramatic poem, by the writer of "Whale Nation", describes the encounter between man and dolphin. His research led him to a remote cove in the south-west of Ireland where a hermit dolphin was rumoured to live. Submerged, alone in the alien sea, he was aware that the dolphin could torpedo its half-ton weight into him at 30 knots, snapping his spine as if it were a sardine's. Yet inches away, eye to eye, it appeared to enternatin no such wish and only invited play with its three-foot-smile. Drawn into the dolphin's force field, Williams had the sense of some old alliance rekindled, of two minds blending, of an ancient, hidden nature, overlapping somewhere along the line with man's. The poet has written "Whale Nation", described by the "Daily Telegraph" as "the most moving poem in English since "The Waste Land".