Thursday 12 March 2015

from Northern Seas




























For no particular reason other than they've been hovering for a while, here are two poems inspired by the Vikings and their presence/absence in the northern seas


1. This day begins in fire and mist,
With a haar* so deep
It steals the sound of the sea
And leaves us in dreadful anticipation
Of the rhythm of the oars and
The long dark ships that burned the world.

This tide ran out,
Ran on down all these years,
And left us here,
Watching the empty sea, and waiting,
In the mist for the fire,
And the long dark ships that changed the world


*Haar: a sea fret, a cold sprawling coastal mist. the term seems to belong 
to the coasts of the North Sea and might well be a Norse term 
adopted along (some of) the coasts they visited

























2. The beat of the drum
Is the rhythm of my heart,
The beat of the drum
Is the pulse of my blood,
The beat of the drum
In the oars in the waves,
The beat of the drum
In the dragon-prow rising.

The beat of the drum
In the surge of the sea,
And the sigh of the wind,
And the sword-call of gulls.

The beat of the drum
In the high sailing clouds,
And the wind that follows
And the storm that swallows.

The beat of the drum
In the billow of the sail,
The beat of the drum
In the rope on the mast
In the keel on the sand,
And the running feet,
And the swinging axe,
And the flames,
And the scream.

The beat of the drum
In a changing heart
And the lure of the machair,
And these high green hills.

The beat of the drum becomes
The sound of hearth and garth and hold.


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