CAMEL TRAIL: A NEW POEM ABOUT LUCY DAVIES' PAINTING...

Camel Trail

(looking at the painting by Lucy Davies…)

I have walked that trail

And peered through foliage

And blossom, frowning

To spy upon an oystercatcher, an egret,

A plover, or a curlew wading,

Or to watch the Doom Bar rise at low tide,

Like a bulk, a hulk, a surfacing whale…

I have strolled that jaunt

And reached the distant bridge

Past trees and hedges, straining

To spy upon a heron, a sandpiper,

A bar-tailed godwit, or a redshank digging,

Or to marvel at Rock, whose dunes reside

Across the estuary, a childhood haunt…

Pete Ray

June 2019

I have added some of my images taken in the same area as illustrated by the artist.

CURLEW...

The picture of the young gannet was special, for the creature appeared to have become lost, tired and disorientated, yet it allowed me to get close.

YOUNG GANNET...

It wasn’t injured and presumably it gathered enough strength to take off and return to the sea…

The Camel Trail of course, was once a railway line, heading from Padstow towards Wadebridge…

ROCK...