Address to Certain Goldfishes

A gloriously peculiar poem: the poet addresses a small school of goldfishes as if they were ancient philosophers, court poets, or exiled royalty. Hartley Coleridge, son of the great Samuel Taylor Coleridge, brings his considerable wit to bear on creatures that most people barely notice. The poem floats between tender observation and gentle absurdity, wondering what these bright, silent beings make of their glass-bound world. It's a meditation on beauty, captivity, and the strange intimacy between humans and the creatures they keep. Coleridge writes with the easy elegance of someone who grew up surrounded by genius but found his own, quieter voice: less thundering, more humane. The goldfishes become a lens for something larger, something about how we observe and are observed, how we trap what we love.