Image: THE JOLIE BRISE SAILS ON. One of a triptych, Acrylic on Canvas 2015. 6 x 4 Ft. Public Collection, Teignmouth, Devon.
This poem was written in 2015 and describes an early evening walk in Teignmouth one wet Thursday. So much has changed of course but as we slowly unlock and get something approaching normality, perhaps the sights and sounds described will return, as well,unfortunately,as the rain.
SO IT WAS.
After walking on the promenade in Teignmouth
By the cubic skeleton theatre
Just down from the hold my hand pier
Where seagulls contemplate the swoop for chips
Eaten on cast iron ended benches
Overlooking brave-heart wetsuit-less swimmers
Who retreat to towels in Volvos
With dry clear skies now,
Even by the unfinished Weatherspoon
Just wheels away from taxi only parking
A high perched metal ship
Rides proud on its still wet housing
After rain had tried its dampest
To last the long day out.
So it was we knew it was today not Wednesday
When the sun was never-ending,
Thursday looked all lost and landlocked
Bleak with impending disaster
Threatening to drown pedestrian precincts,
Wash clean dog-dirt pavements;
So it was as we suspected
That the world looked so much better
In the evening calm.
After an unplanned boardwalk U turn
On the squalid back beach sand
By two splashing urchin brothers
By the hairy dog sat saintly
By the tea-shirt wind tanned talkers
Holding bottled beer and parties
Clustering by beach hut hideaways
A short walk from the toy-town lighthouse
Where captain Pugwash chewed, me hearties,
On plastic fish filled breaded fingers
Near the street with poorly hand drawn
A frame menus, B & B vacancy signs
In lonely landlady unwashed windows
By the crowds in pint glass alley
Drinking views of distant headlands
Where the houses, perched like puffins
On the green tree cliffs
Looking down their affluent noses
On so many masts and dingies
Row boats, sunken wrecks and moorings
Noisy family pizza eaters
Sat on low Sloop weathered benches
And lowly pretend harbour walls.
So it was we knew it was today not Wednesday
When we were all lost and troubled;
So it was as we suspected
That the world looked so much better
In the evening calm.
