Happy Poetry Friday, and welcome to you, no matter how you wandered in! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.)
First up…NCTE. Will you be there? I will!
Now, for Poetry Friday this week, I’m sharing another poem inspired by our Ireland trip. You might remember that a few weeks ago, I mentioned trying to write a poem about a monument to those lost at sea, but I needed more hard facts for the form I was working on. So I chose another topic.
But this week, I’m back to this monument in Skerries, Ireland. No facts, just feelings. It’s a haunting monument, this pole that was previously used by rescuers to survey the surrounding sea. And all around the pole are metal plates holding the names and dates of people lost at sea, some IN the Skerries area, others FROM the Skerries area who died elsewhere in the world’s ocean. Here are a couple of photos.
Between visiting the Titanic Experience in Belfast in Northern Ireland and coming across this haunting monument in Skerries, people lost at sea had been on my mind. Then earlier this week was the anniversary of the 1975 sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior. So Randy and I were reading, talking, and listening to a radio play about that.
The border between life and death, between you and me, between ocean and fog…it all feels so permeable sometimes. Here’s my brief draft.
Thanks for reading. For a boatload of wonderful poetry, don’t miss the Poetry Friday Roundup with the shockingly clever Karen Edmisten!