Brean Down

Cherry

By marandina

Tue, 28 Mar 2023
  • 913 reads
17 comments
 

Audio version at: https://soundcloud.com/user-62051685/brean-down

 

Brean Down

Gulls suspended in silence - mid-flight,

gliding high over spume-dashed rocks,

limestone cliffs reach out to horizons,

striations etched in millennial layers.

 

Kites dance on string, spring breezes,

labradors bound across pale, soft sand,

sea-tides ebb and flow in conjunction

with ephemeral, phased moon-cloud.

 

I climb steep steps of gnarled wood

that straddle, traverse oceans of time,

listening to the cry of coastal curlews,

corvine echoes of inky-black crows.

 

Gravel paths weave past scrub and bush,

a rambling, circular route to headland,

labyrinthine concrete buildings where

tin-hatted sentries roam as war-ghosts.

 

Diaphanous mist by brackish waters,

distant islands - steep and flat holm,

one a sanctuary to save avian souls

the other, gateway to ancient lands.  

 

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/somerset/brean-down/brean-down-coastal-walk

 

Pic is my own

Certificate U
Poem
Miscellaneous Poems
Nature

Comments

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Really enjoyed the cliff ramble as have had so many holidays on Purbeck cliffs and Pembrokeshire coastal path, and also lived many years in Barry with the friendly Flat Holm and Steep Holm to see (except when it was raining, though the saying was that if you could see them it would rain soon!).

Cliffs like that do show time passing, though recent research does show they were probably put down in violent storm over fairlly short time as happened after Mt St Helen eruption, and gradual engulfing of fossils unlikely. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by marandina on

Thanks for coming along, Rhiannon. Adore Brean and the Down. Had a mooch around the Fort for the first time recently. Steeped in war history. It's a very special place. 

 

Submitted by celticman on

Rocks and resonates with autheticity. 

 

Submitted by marandina on

Thanks for reading, CM. It's a magical place. Coastlines generally are. 

 

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

What a great illustration in words Paul. 

I liked that third stanza:-

I climb steep steps of gnarled wood

that straddle, traverse oceans of time,

listening to the cry of coastal curlews,

corvine echoes of inky-black crows.

But the poem as a whole is so dreamy and reminds me of the wildness that I would love to visit.

A beautifully captured poem indeed.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by marandina on

Thanks for reading, Jenny. Brean was my dad's favourite place. It holds special memories and never gets old. 

 

Submitted by marandina on

Thanks for the cherries, ABC Eds. Genuinely appreciated. Paul 

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

I don't know that part of the country at all- thank you for taking me with you marandina!

 

Submitted by marandina on

Thanks for reading, insert. You really must visit the West Country. My favourite place in the world. Brean is just one of many wonderful sites. Brean is close to Berrow Sands, subject of onemorething's recent poem. 

 

Submitted by Mark Burrow on

Enjoyed reading this, Marandina. You capture the ruggardness of the landscape, rich with myth and legend. 

 

Submitted by marandina on

Thanks for reading, Mark. Yes, it really is. 

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Very lovely. :)

 

Submitted by marandina on

Thanks for reading it, Rachel. Glad you liked it :) 

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Even living by the sea, reading your lovely poem I got that tingle of holiday magic :0)
I loved the contrast of high stillness and adjacent movement in

"Gulls suspended in silence - mid-flight,

gliding high over spume-dashed rocks"

and just the sounds in this

"Kites dance on string, spring breezes,

labradors bound across pale, soft sand"

but also the way there is movement all through, with the cliffs dissolving, tides coming and going, history constantly being made and left behind like the steps climbed. It is a beautiful companion poem to St Audrey's Waterfall.

 

Submitted by marandina on

Thanks for reading, Di. Glad you liked it. Brean is a beautiful place and a privilege to capture in words :) 

 

Submitted by jeand on

Hi Paul

Beutiful poem - so peaceful. It must have been a very pleasant day.

Jean Day

Submitted by marandina on

Thanks for reading, Jean. It was a lovely day, funnily enough. The sun was shining and Brean Down looked its best. Brean Fort was so interesting, imagining what it must have been like to be stationed there in war time.