'UNLOADED FROM PADSTOW MUD': A POEM FROM JULIE ADLARD'S ARTWORK...

 Unloaded From Padstow Mud…

(from Julie Adlard’s picture…)

A vessel stands high but not dry,

Its hull resting upon wet slime

At low tide in Padstow.

Shielded from the Camel Estuary 

And the Doom Bar’s strife

By a solid granite harbour wall,

It has unloaded its ensnared haul

Of valuable, edible sea-life.

And from its livery’s grime

A white ladder, like a third mast, rises tall,

As intrusive gulls scream, swoop and call,

Hunting for scraps in a callous row,

 Of invasive, scavenging crime. 

Pots and baskets lie empty and awry

Upon the sinuous mud in a deep quay,

Where the egret and the curlew pry

And the cormorant lifts its head to the sea…  

Pete Ray

1st February, 2021

Looks like the illustrated boat might possibly be the Ocean Harvest, FY 12, a trawler/potter built in 1985, Penryn…

This deep part of Padstow’s quayside fascinates me every time I go there…