Water Story 21st October 2022 ~ Luss & Inchcailloch

Sea Lines

This was our theme today with Cap'n Bev hunting out a number of prompts from sea poems (courtesy of the anthology "Poems of the Sea"). We had the splendid factual commentary by Archie Waters as we travelled around Luss and the islands weaving magic from the lyrical inspiration of the lines of famous poets (see below).

one port, methought, I like they sought ~ clough

lies a calm along the deep ~ goethe

past the houses, past the headlands ~ dickinson

the beacon in the storm ~ hugo

the masts with all their rigging ~ longfellow

the winged galley flies ~ pope

far as the breeze can bear ~ byron

this is the end of the whaleroad ~ lowell

break at the foot of thy crags ~ tennyson

desolate shores with  mighty swell ~ keats

uplifted, and secure with beaked prow ~ milton

before him only shoreless seas ~ miller

moorings, the bleaching quay, the heat ~ merwin

a tall ship and a star to steer her by ~ masefield

*****************************************************************

And now for some of 

YOUR WRITING:

"A tall ship and a star to steer her by"

by Debbie Macrae 

She stood at the bow of the ship.

All others behind her,

aiding her mission, 

awaiting her command. 

She had to be the Captain. 

She knew she mustn’t fail,

as the tall ship set sail.  

Being at the helm steadied her,

empowered her. 

She took calming breaths of sea air 

and became the compass,

steering the ship towards her star - 

her one true guiding light

Ready to fight

the monsters from the deep. 

As she navigated the dark waters,

the brilliant luminescence from the star above,

gave her focus and purpose.

The surface

of the water, glistened in the starlight,

reflecting her determination

to sail on unscathed into another day. 

“break at the foot of thy crags” ~ Tennyson

by Cap’n Bev

How to sail my sweet yacht 

on waves of otherworldliness

how to tug at the stays

slacken sails when the blow is too strong

how to watch for the swell

the lift and the roll that are not my control.

All that's for me is to sail this live sea

for good and for bad 

just to be surely afloat on my own tiny boat

 and not break at the foot of the crags.

Pulp and Perpetuity

by Cap'n Bev 

(this new poem was used to introduce the session, encouraging all to keep questioning rather than fixing on answers)

The pen presses down in pulp and perpetuity

commits new truth to strident strokes of black and white

yet even as I write the verity evolves

to new and different understanding

mutates to something else quite inconceivable.

Who are these that lay down law?

In tablet and in tome, perception pinned to fact

an attempt to hunt down truth

end its movement

eat its organs

stretch its hide on tenterhooks

let it dry to brittle parchment on which they write...

the story!

how fast and ferocious was this animal

how powerful the hunter who caught and slaughtered it

ate its heart and meat till they were full, replete

and stronger all the more because they know the animal

know it all

Around the fireside

the children feel their bubbling questions burst unanswered

find no pause to ask about the beast

was it beautiful

what did it eat, could we eat the same

how magnificent was its movement

and when you looked it in the eye

could you find the question

to which our answers are all blind?

********************************************************************

Thanks to you all ...

... for your heartening feedback as always!

*****************************************************************

Thanks to funders

Lapidus Scotland gratefully acknowledges the support of Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership's "Wellbeing for Longer in Glasgow Fund" (managed by Impact Funding Partners) and, of course, Cruise Loch Lomond.