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Helen Cadbury

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Praise Poem for the Sea

I write in praise of the suck
and undertow of waves on shingle.

I write in praise of that grey-green
merge of water into sky.

I write in praise of its iron will, its urge
to drag and pull every small thing in.

I write in praise of its kissing
and tangling love for the wind

of its teeth carving out caves
and hacking into cliffs. I write

in praise of the sea and the songs
of gulls, terns, kittiwakes, fishermen

and sailors’ wives keening unheeded.

I write in praise of it leaving me, stripped
to the bone, by an outgoing tide, polished,

transfixed, just another white stone.
I write until the paper blows away,

the pencil breaks, my hair whips
across my face – like a torn plastic bag

on a driftwood branch – my salt-cracked
lips split and my voice is lost to the wind.

 

Page(s) 69

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