Friday 15 October 2010

A poem for Robert Bly

Menai Bridge

My bardic brother, do you remember that night
When half-asleep we clambered from an Austin Cambridge
Run out of fuel on the Menai Bridge and standing waited.

We felt so vulnerable in that magical star-bright place
Below Snowdon's bulk and the skeleton chains, on the base
Which held us in space above the waters of the Menai Straits

Within sight of the flickering lights of the nearby town
Now so far away, and where I nearly drowned one time
When we were playing on the rocks and in we fell,

Into the hungry sea that rushes to the whirpool
Where the waters meet and clash - should have been in school
That day - she feeds on ships which have strayed off course.

Old wreckage sometimes sticks in jagged rocks and quicksands;
A thousand sailors perished in some foreign land
Short leagues away from Telford's chains and towers.

Today up there in Snowdon's air the fighters fly and roar,
Defenders of our green and pleasant dragon haunted shore,
Guardians of the crystal cave where Merlin soundly snores.

-
gw2010
- composed after reading Bly's 'Driving West in 1970'
- image: courtesy Wales Tourist Board

4 comments:

  1. Peter Ingestad alias Kraxpelx has not quite as many links as Thomas Telford's famous Chain Bridge. But it has a lot. And they'll keep us busy for years.
    His blog 'My philosophy' looks to me like an interesting place to start...

    Peter,
    welcome to Poet-in-Residence!

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  2. You playing hookey Poet?? I don't believe it. I must say that the word verification does complement the poem rather nicely - it is joyache.

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  3. There are some good hidden rhymes in here that link the poem like the bridge chains. Enjoyed it!

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  4. Pat,
    Hookey was my middle name
    ;)g

    Gordon, Menai Bridge is best approached on a boiling hot day over the Nantfrancon Pass but with a reliable car equipped with a good radiator, and not a clapped out Ford Cortina, or if not then two raw eggs as an emergency radiator repair kit. But that's another story...

    ReplyDelete

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