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Poetry Library Southbank Centre - The Poetry Library housing the Arts Council Collection at Southbank Centre

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Myra Schneider

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Communion

They sniff chill sifting
the air, fish reek
rising from the scrub of wooden
crates on cobbles, and feed
on the whitened sea, feeling
silence is necessary.

They look at the harbour water
where a hull is in yellow ribbons.
Its mast climbs up the cliffs,
up the grim castle that has sunk
its teeth into the side of the hill.

The sun is a red boat.
With night in tow it sails
down the sky casting
light into difficult passages,
easing the mesh of their strings.

Watching the watchful seagull
on the harbour’s iron rim
they are caught in raucous gusts
wheeled from amusement shacks
whose crude eyes wink and wink.

On the rockside steps they pass
the close-leaved sweetness of bushes,
glance at the dark windows
of fading hotels. Holding
the rhythm between them they go on
into the silence that is necessary.

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