Jean Valjean

Articulate among the rocks

of this expedient exile

not so far from home,

what thoughts, what stories

recur like aftertastes

of not so haute cuisine ...

Victor Hugo on Guernsey,

amongst his poems

and les miserables,

plotting the fate

of convict Jean Valjean,

the sea his own barricades.

22 May was the 129th anniversary of Victor Hugo’s death.

Image: Marina Shiderova; text: Tom Phillips