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!
19 Responses
Laura, that pole is indeed haunting. I love how you’ve managed to turn isolation and fear into connectedness with your poem. : )
“haunt the mist” is striking. Mist is a word prompt in Folktale Week that starts on Monday. I think you have a wonderful entry into it.
Wow! That first line! Looking forward to seeing you at NCTE!
I agree with others that “haunt the mist” is a wonderful opening. So many lives, yet one with the ocean. Thank you always for sharing your words.
Ooo, I like that “one ocean.” Funny, I was just at Linda M’s blog, talking about ghost stories, and now I’m haunted over here. 🙂 I guess spookiness is striking a chord.
Laura, I look forward to seeing you at NCTE! Thanks for sharing these lost at sea moments too. xo
I really appreciate your choice of voice, Laura –that we hear from those lost. Such a lonely looking pole. I wonder about the protrusions on it — are they rudders that normally exist beneath a boat? They seem like stairs now — for the haunted to find their way. Best to you at NCTE. Someday I’d love to attend one.
You know what’s interesting is that I was writing from the point of view of those who have lost someone, not the lost themselves. But as I revised, it became more and more ambiguous, so that it could work either way. I decided I liked the ambiguity (usually I don’t) and left it. So I’m interested to hear how people read it. Those protrusions, by the way, are for climbing. Rescuers would climb up to the top to survey the sea and look for missing people/boats. But I’m unclear on whether the pole was mounted on a boat or on a high spot of land or what…
I replied to you, but it didn’t appear in thread. See my reply below?
It’s a thoughtful poem to bring your own memory of those lost, Laura. Every word brings us to the tragedy and to linger on those never found. My father was one lost in WWII, a pilot shot down in the Western Pacific. Have a great time at NCTE!
I always think of how hard that would be, to lose a loved one and not be able to know, to visit, to visualize the spot. That uncertainty. I’m sorry for your loss, Linda. Families pay a high price during wars, too. <3
The monument is haunting and so is your poem, Laura. The mystery of the sea, our connections to it and each other — so good.
Thanks for sharing more poems about your trip. All one ocean is a hopeful idea.
Such haunting images, Laura. I so enjoyed and was moved by the Titanic Museum. I remember my grandmother talking about it.
Your post and your poem have aroused multiple memories, Laura. The term ‘one ocean’ came to my ears when on an environmental tour in North Carolina some tweenty years ago now. It is no less powerful in your poem. You have prompted to me research a major sailing tragedy that took the lives of 12 young men in my town. As I said, your post has ignited sparks for me. Your poem has a hint of unsettled thought surrounding the lives of those lost at sea. The photograph you have chosen is most fitting. Enjoy NCTE- another memory from the past in Pittsburgh…
Thanks for letting me know, Alan. Sometimes I’ll read a blog post and leave with 5 things I’m thinking about. Other times, I read the post, enjoy it, and that’s it. Glad to have been a spark!
Such a profound and personal yet universal poem, love the sounds as well—and slight overcast feeling from your graphics too—all working together, thanks Laura!
When we were in Scotland, we also visited a monument to those lost at sea. It moved me to tears. A boat full of returning WWII servicemen went down literally within sight of home. Tragic.
Laura, your photos are very interesting, especially the pole with its strange protrusions. That plus your draft poem would haunt me if I was there. “The border between life and death, between you and me, between ocean and fog…it all feels so permeable sometimes.”=>Now this line is something to ponder today. Have a wonderful presentation with PF friends. I wish I was going.