how many tides have turned
shifted and smoothed
sifted and sorted
the pebbles so
today the sea would give up this stone
so you might gift it me
precious as any stone
I have ever held
~
CLP 13/09/2021
Treasure
Tag Archives: Beach
On the Beach
slipping on pebbles
this feels like treading water
yet gentle progress
~
CLP 18/08/2021
On the Beach
I’m never tired
of each tide’s unique beauty
waking next to you
~
CLP 03/08/2021
On Water xx
sorting through shingle
picking out perfect pebbles
stones skimming off waves
.
CLP 28/04/2021
On The Beach
These amongst others
Mother of pearl and sandstone
Everything but you
~
CLP 22/03/2021
On Pleasure iii
Morning lights our shore
gulls call us to discover
gifts brought in on tide
~
n.b. photograph courtesy of ACG.
CLP 04/09/2020
Terns
Crunching east on stony beach
With the westerly
Encouraging me to move along
With uncalled for shoves to my spine
Like an impatient copper
Clearing an unruly popular terrace
Causing me to stumble
As I stagger on loose pebbles
Waves tumble in
Wash through shingle
The rage of sea repressed
By this burly bully at our backs
My lips licked by briny spray
Sunglasses spotted with tear-salt smears
Ears wind-burnt
The white noise of breaking horses
Fills the air, all but deafens
Except
Clear and shrill like blue-lighting sirens
Heading into battle
Against the insistent blows
With scratchy screeches
Wings like knives
Cutting through
Slicing and dicing
Contradicting the force
They stick to their intended course
Zigger-zagger dancing
Toward the setting sun
.
CLP 23/05/2020
On the Arrogant Sea
Waves batter shingle
Surprise at stones’ resistance
Draws astonished gasps
~
CLP 12/07/2020
Equinox – Autumn
Thickened by the tired air
Sticky with ripened fruit
Slow, pitch black, distorted, stretched
Beyond recognition
These shadows of ours
Run out
Black rivers
Bleeding the last of summer’s heat
From our veins
Onto the misted ground
Into the thin air of autumn
Warmth no longer from within
We become reptilian
Bask on the cool stones
Of an empty beach
Where the skin-deep solar glow
Drains with the ebb tide
We hold the last of harvest gold
In our joined hands
.
CLP 20/09/2019
Crow
Aloft on a waft
To drop mollusc on shingle
Did gulls teach or learn?
.
n.b. It is fascinating to watch gulls and crows rise 3 or 4 metres on the breeze with the intention of dropping a shelled shore-dweller onto the pebbled beach repeatedly until the shell cracks open and the meaty interior is accessible. When I mentioned this to my step-father, Frank Hawes, I had presumed the seabirds got the idea first. He said, “Maybe the gulls copied the crows.”
CLP 03/01/2019
