'OUR FAVOURITE SPOT': POEM FROM MANI PARKES' PAINTING OF SOUTH STACKS CLIFFS IN ANGLESEY...

Our Favourite Spot

(from Mani Parkes’ painting of South Stack Cliffs, Holy Island, Anglesey)

It’s the hands

And the braces

And the soberly tucked in shirt;

And the dress

And the scarf and the hat

And the clifftop breeze

And the loving faces

And the lack of stress

And the expressions alert

And the balmy, intimate chat…

And I recalled a childhood

In a similar place: 

The low picnic chairs, 

The family seated.

 My Uncle Jack stood

Oft with a severe face,

And his concentrated stares,

As cold water heated…

The Primus stove was sheltered within

An old cube box of a biscuit tin;

Meths reeked beneath a whistling kettle,

Then a metal teapot allowed the leaves to settle;

China cups and saucers were so carefully 

Handed round to adults, albeit cheerfully;

Sandwiches and cakes were quickly revealed

From various containers, wrapped and sealed;

No cool-box, no burgers, no crisps, no flasks,

But all of us were given our individual tasks

And my aggressive father’s usual role

Was to wash up in a plastic kitchen bowl…

Pete Ray

17th April 2020

Loved this Mani Parkes painting, not only for its nostalgia but also because it reminded me of sitting on cliff-tops as a kid with my aunts, uncles, parents and cousins, all sitting round and eating what was a considerable tea, or lunch, overlooking the sea, usually though in Devon or Cornwall…