Skip to content

Lesley Harrison ~ poetry etc

March 4, 2020

‘Disappearance’ – London launch

Continue reading →
February 28, 2020

StAnza Poetry Breakfast

Continue reading →
February 28, 2020

‘Found in Translation’

Continue reading →
February 28, 2020

StAnza Poetry workshop, 5th Feb 10.30am

Continue reading →
February 16, 2020

‘Disappearance’

Continue reading →
December 7, 2019

New Writing Scotland 2019

Continue reading →
November 30, 2019November 30, 2019

Stanza 2020

Continue reading →
November 30, 2019

Shoormal, Shetland

Continue reading →
July 3, 2019

North Sea poems

Continue reading →

Posts navigation

← Older posts
Newer posts →

Menu

  • Home
  • Publications
  • Contact

DISAPPEARANCE

DISAPPEARANCE     [extract]

I must have disturbed him when I came up the companion .… He was unapproachable, as a misfit should be.
– Donald Crowhurst, logbook of the Teighnmouth Electron. 29th January 1969.

 

[…]
How, singlehanding in a bad storm,
light-poor, deprived of sleep, beyond isolation

and fatigue as the boat took a beating
shedding green tons, letting the dark in

through shuddering deck boards;
working at waking, the tiller jammed hard

at his side while the boat leaned and leaned,
the second up front, watching the sea’s sliding surface

as it brimmed and fell while he nursed the boat across
great holes that closed and opened

beside them, the two of them watching for minutes
as the storm fretted and at last began

to fail, the boat butting forward, correcting its roll
in small calms, riding weightless

as the surface formed
itself and held, the wind sighing

in one vast outbreath,
and then he was alone again.

 

From Disappearance : North Sea Poems, publ. Shearsman, 2020.

[Photo from Bas Jan Ader: In Search of the Miraculous, by Door Jan Verwoert. MIT Press, 2006.]

  • RSS
  • Dribbble
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • Foursquare
  • Vimeo
Blog at WordPress.com.
  • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Lesley Harrison ~ poetry etc
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Lesley Harrison ~ poetry etc
    • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...