M.

When the deaf phonetician spread his hand

Over the dome of a speaker’s skull

He could tell which diphthong and which vowel

By the bone vibrating to the sound.

 

A globe stops spinning. I set my palm

On a contour cold as permafrost

And imagine axle-hum and the steadfast

Russian of Osip Mandelstam.

Seamus Heaney, The Spirit Level,  Faber and Faber 1996