Great Regulars: In his best, most characteristic writing,

[Thom] Gunn is what you might call a poet of friction: he's interested in the ways in which surfaces push off, against or into each other. Consider his description of surfing in "From the Wave":

The mindless heave of which they rode
A fluid shelf
Breaks as they leave it, falls and, slowed,
Loses itself.

Clear, the sheathed bodies slick as seals
Loosen and tingle;
And by the board the bare foot feels
The suck of shingle.

from David Orr: The New York Times: Too Close to Touch

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