Posts Tagged shore
CROSBY
Posted by David Selzer in Poetry on January 26th, 2011
Another Place ©SCES 2008
We crunch through razor shells and squelch through
blackish silt – there is coal in the drenched sand -
to reach the artist’s cast iron avatars.
They are steadfast against anglers, vandals,
local Tories, jet skiers, the Coastguard,
and the RSPB – but not the wind
or the sea. Some are rusting deeply,
some barnacled already, some sinking
or rising – others missing on this
shifty shore. They have watched the North Sea.
Now, from here, they can see Snowdonia,
The Skerries, Queenstown, the New World -
and, some, when the tide is in, sea creatures
in their wilderness of oblivion.
Above, ships pass and the wind farm turns.
ARE WE NEARLY THERE?
Posted by David Selzer in Poetry on July 31st, 2010
The tide is at its ebb. Late sun quick-silvers
the narrowed estuary, where river and sea
conflict and oyster catchers race upstream.
An ice cream van’s jingle jangle sounds
across the almost empty sands. ‘O sole
mio’… And you are suddenly there –
aged three – digging with purpose into the dusk.
Your daughter – that longed for, longed for joy –
already strives unprompted towards the sun,
scrabbling beyond the bounds of her play mat!
‘…n’aria serena doppo na tempesta!…’
How calm you are, how fulfilled with love!
As we leave the shore for home, mute swans
fly west – their thrilling wing beats song enough.
Somewhere before us, echoing through the streets,
the ice cream van calls: ‘O sole, sole mio.’
THE WRECK OF THE ROTHESAY CASTLE
Posted by David Selzer in Poetry on November 29th, 2009
A dirty night in the Menai Straits…
a paddle steamer on a sudden sandbank -
pounding itself, pounding itself, pounding…
seas silencing the hullabaloo.
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For the last time, the lifeboat pulls for the shore.
Two lovers, roped to the mast, drown their joy.
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All turned to chalk on the dark sea bed.
Far, far above was the muffled cry
of gulls, the cormorant’s swift shadow.
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