The creative writing group worked together to create this emotive poem
A View
and there I was a child
digging the deepest hole ever
fighting the tide
and building barricades
to hold back the sea
and music played from
transistor radios
and there she was my mum
anchoring down the big blanket
between flapping deckchairs
and brushing sand from
shrimp paste sandwiches
and there too were the aunts
knotted headscarves under their chins
peeling hardboiled eggs
toes peeping out from peep-toe sandals
summer coats held close
and greensleeves chimed from
ice-cream vans
then the sea raced in
and as we moved back
we became condensed
into a smaller patch of beach
like fish in a sardine can
“what a lark!” “Oh Lor!!”
and I don’t know where that came from . . .
for here I am a man
pushing the heavy shutters
the morning sun pours in
the milky sea has become a glassy patchwork
a million mirrors moving
they are a contemporary dance
bobbin like cotton reels in an industrial mill
like the shrill of gulls
following shoals of fish
look over there
a faraway fisherman
anchors down hard
and pulls in his twisted net
and over here
a boy bike thrown to the sand
a black shape against
all that light all those lights
I can barely see
It’s as if the world has stopped.