King Cormorant: Titania's Poem

Since the summer I have been working on a sculpture based on the River Teign, and marking my first carving for three years.  After starting carving Titania I went for a long walk along the shores of the River Teign picking up sand, stones, bits of china and all manner of flotsam and jetsam, which have been incorporated into the sculpture.  The poem that accompanies the piece describes the walk:

King Cormorant

The roots of the oak tree
Reach down through the mud and shale,
Touching fragments of china cups,
Scattered shore-side;
Lying side-by-side with stones and shells,
All framed against the red sand.

Out in the river
The body of a dead tree
Holds King Cormorant.

I’m lost in overturning mud stained shells,
Snaked with worm tubes
And broken.
I’m lost in overturning bits of china,
Searching for one last piece.

In searching I realise that
These fragmented shells
Are just as beautiful
As perfectly formed spirals.

Retracing my steps
The tide has claimed its victim.
Again: limbs and all.

King Cormorant surveys the River Teign.

Haiku at Swaney Cove

At the beginning of the summer I made an Artist's Date with a place called Swaney Cove. I had hoped to swim there, but my new wetsuit broke (?!) so I was left pondering what to do after walking so far.  I mooched about a bit, tested the water with my feet ... Freezing. I picked up some odd things that had been left by the sea on the white stones: a shell, a crab shell, and an egg-shaped pebble.  Later on I found an empty egg shell on top of the cliff. These oddments seemed to mean something.

The beautiful Swaney Cove.

So I sat, I listened to the sea, and I wrote.  There are two poems that came out of my visit.  One, the haiku, I decided to make into a small art work using the oddments that I found on the beach that day and the egg shell on the cliff...

Samphire scents the cliff ...

Spring in October

Spring in October

The October rain
Transforms the browning moss
Into a carpet of veridian.
Draped over twigs and branches
And dripping, moisture soaked,
Releasing a sweet, earthy scent
I carried throught the forest.

The October rain
Wakens the browning moss,
Which yawns and stretches
Over twigs and branches,
Blanketing the trees with veridian.
The spring, collecting mossy drops,
Trickles over clay soaked stones,
Weaving through the ferns and moss,
Releasing a sweet, earthy scent
I carried through the forest.

Haiku from Simonsbath

The October rain

Transforming the browning moss

To veridian 

Russet and Green

Lime on blended branch,
Lichen covered; rain soaked.

Streams flow snake-like
Through the sodden earth.
Turning torrent-like;
Cutting a path through and down
To the wind blown sea,
Through and down
The russet and green.

Weaving the land
With shell, heather and stone.
Walking to the beat
Of bone on skin,
Sunlight pierces the cloud strewn sky,
Illuminating the russet and green.

Lysithea poem

Here's the second poem.  This will accompany the carving in her box.

Lysithea

A box without a lock, lost.

Liminal,

My feet on the sand

Caressed by the waves.

Walking between 

The feathers, fish bones and driftwood,

Stones send stabs of pain through my feet.

Searching the rocks,

Frantic, 

The cliffs raging above me,

I look to the sea.

A box without a lock, lost.

Liminal,

Between the land and the sea,

Sand beneath my feet,

Waves meet my outstretched hands.

Oceanid

I've been working on a few poems with Lysithea as my muse.  Here's my first stab at poetry for, hmm, over 9 years!

Oceanid

Golden brown skin,

Now pallid.

Her voice,

A single silver thread,

Winding around dark rocks.

Searching,

Through seaweed forests,

And dead coral,

Alone.

Based on the idea of the 3000 Oceanids of Greek mythology (Lysithea being one).  Each Oceanid was associated with either a spring, lake, river, sea, flower, or cloud.  Once together and happy, now scattered and broken.   The idea of dead coral came from my memories of snorkelling off the coast of the Dominican Republic, where there are many small coral reefs, slowly dying out through fishing methods and pollution.