The poem seems to be about a surfer, though the word is never used. The speaker describes a figure who lives in the sea and has stripped away everything human, including language. "Adam's ale" is an old joke for water, so the opening line puts us right in the ocean, with fingertips touching the swell. The surfer is called "it," which makes the figure feel less like a person and more like a creature, even "a savage," who will travel kilometres to find the right spot.
The speaker's feelings are a mix of awe and unease. Waves "reach their apex" and "break," and the surfer sees their beauty and loves them without ever backing away. Yet the repeated "forever" suggests an obsession that has no end, and the aching movement hints at a cost. The final image, the wave as a "glass sculpture," is calm and beautiful. The mood is intense and almost trance-like: raw, devoted, and a little lonely, as the surfer gives up being human to become part of nature.