MEVAGISSEY HARBOUR...

Mevagissey Harbour

Tensed white vessels near bobbing buoys are placed,

Rueful of an encroaching ocean’s threat,

But one’s gaze is directed upward

By ladders, like in a game without snakes

Towards a solid, adequate, stone-built quay

And fishing detritus scattered awry…

The dice are rolled, more rising steps are faced,

To a glum, protective high wall set

Below a row of dwellings, marshalled seaward,

Like a Saxon shield-wall without any breaks,

Pressed close against the elements, the Vikings or the sea:

Silent, strained, surreal, yet spry…

Blushed rouge buildings, pallid or blue are braced,

Their windswept white windows shrivel and fret;

A flimsy balcony rail hovers idle and awkward,

As cloned chimneys the grim, harsh sky rake;

And Mevagissey steels itself hesitantly

On another turn of the dice when a storm is nigh…

Pete Ray

July 2017

Julie Adlard’s artwork ‘Mevagissey Harbour’ made me think of two things, other than the attraction of her medium.

Firstly the ladders and steps suggested ‘snakes and ladders’ with no snakes, making me look from the bottom to the top, following the inclines.

Secondly the tightly bunched houses, reminiscent of an ancient shield-wall, a terrifying slow method of warfare, where shoving and killing took place in a chaotic bloodbath.

It seemed that the dwellings were braced to battle the elements.