Poetry...
Night-Bathing, Llangenneth
At night I stole out past the whispered touch
of reed and fern
and padded barefoot to the sea
crickets scraped the silence all around
pale shafts of light swept up the Universe
Naked,
I kindled a flame to fierce brilliance –
the hills leapt back: salt crackled green, green
juices flared fanged furious white and orange; timber
and tendril fumed, bladder wrack split and spat
and dense black soared away
into a denser black
In the still deep darkness
under the water
I opened my eyes
Level with flotsam and star, I waded the furthest latitudes,
long stalks of legs, feet
moving like shades on the silent bottom
Lights dwindled on the far peninsula.
I plunged
and plunged, I drove
scalding the foam, salting the wounds
crushing the sand to rock
then still again
and still
riding the tug and the slack
wave lapping hair
I floated
fingering fine traceries
sounding the surge
and the suck
the sleek sand sizzling past the stones
My fire burned the colour of my clothes
I lay alone. I gently rocked.
Horizons boomed between my toes
©2003 Alan Perry
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