'STEPS DOWN TO THE HARBOUR': A NEW POEM TO ACCOMPANY JULIE ADLARD'S ARTWORK...

Steps Down To the Harbour

Redundant are small boats, lobster pots and mooring posts,

Insistent are the raw fishing nets’ warm pinks;

A harbour’s life blood hue thus clings to the coast

And rocks and patchwork form the links

Between the silence and vacancy perceived…

Consistent is the bunting, for a regatta or perhaps May Day?

Absent are local folks, or perhaps merely hidden;

A harbour’s blusher warms like sundown, its tints awry

And steps descend for the bidden,

Who for death’s airy wraiths have grieved…

Adamant is that mauve thread curling a gushing route,

Rampant its sweep towards a discreet corner, where

A harbour’s nestling eatery hugs a niche astute

And Rojano’s, maybe lurking in the Square,

Where culinary conjuring is woven and achieved?

Pete Ray

June 2017

A poem to accompany Julie Adlard’s picture of the same name…

‘Steps Down To the Harbour’ is loosely based upon Padstow I believe and one can see sailing in the distance, presumably upon the River Camel’s estuary.

I could only wonder where the mauve led to and I know Rojano’s is round a corner from the harbour, so I took the liberty to mention the restaurant in the verses above…

Loved the steps in the picture, also the harsh netting but once again the absence of humans adds so much to the work…

The ladder is so like the one used by Verona which originated from the Scaligeri family’s original name, della Scala, meaning ‘the steps’…