Robin McConnell's left arm bowler

Sports writer Robin McConnell is another New Zealand poet I've been re-reading recently. In the Auckland poetry anthology, When the Sea Goes Mad at Night, he wrote a short poem based on a left arm bowler. It is notable for its very artful description of the left armer's action, as if a musical instrument at work:

ROBIN MCCONNELL

Left arm bowler

the limbered bow

bends the curve of melody

into this perfect parabola

of grace arching sinews

that soar into the opening

line of sextet

and then behind

to spin successive notes from finger tips

scored with ritual variations

Poem © Robin McConnell

(from the anthology When the Sea Goes Mad at Night, Christian/Gray New Zealand 1999/2000)