Porpoise at Cumbrae

Prow of boat, I see you first
Over under over under
Riding seascape, tip and curl,
Porpoise proud from needle-nose to tucked-up tail
Over under over under
Indigo seamstress, stitching waves
Selvedge-edging harbour walls;
Embroidering ocean, porpoise, proud.

-Larissa Reid

SW F8 gale expected midnight to 0600

Foam lines horizon-wide on ocean face,
whiteness scrolled on each primeval wave.
Pinpoints of other light sprig tortured air,
starlets that burn around a compass-rose
impersonate vast trawlers, cardinal buoys,
lighthouse five-miles-off, ship metal-close.

Worse yet, the imperceptible threat of rogue
containers, nomadic storm-scourged trees.
In keening southwesterlies, hours elongate,
our rods and cones straining to apprehend

first greying, night-layers undone, a slow
bleach of edge as blink-flash becomes boat
or quay. Things are reduced to dimensions
we know: we see the hazards in our way.

(First published by GreenInk, 2022)

-Lesley Curwen

Bios and Links

–Larissa Reid

A freelance science writer by trade, Larissa has written poetry and prose regularly since 2016. Notable publications include Northwords Now, Silk & Smoke, Green Ink Poetry, Fenacular, Black Bough Poetry Anthologies, and the Beyond the Swelkie Anthology. She had a poem shortlisted for the Janet Coats Memorial Prize 2020. Larissa is intrigued by visible and invisible boundary lines in landscapes – geological faultlines, myth and reality, edge-lines of land and sea. Based on Scotland’s east coast, she balances her writing life with bringing up her daughters. Larissa is a founder member of the Edinburgh-based writing group, Twisted::Colon.

-Lesley Curwen

is a broadcaster, poet and sailor who lives within sight of Plymouth Sound. Her poems have been published by Arachne Press, Broken Sleep, Nine Pens, Green Ink, Quay Words, snakeskin and Slate. (Twitter handle is @elcurwen)