Sailing By

I got some good news today. I have been asked to give a poetry reading at a venue in the centre of Paris. It's a long running series of readings organised by John Kliphan at the Live Poets Society. Talented Parisian writers: Amy Hollowell and Lisa Pasold, will also be reading. Please come along if you can on Monday 16th January starting at 8 pm. The venue is the downstairs bar of The Highlander, 8 Rue de Nevers, 75006 Paris. The nearest Metro stations are Odéon and St. Michel (RER Line B). 4 Euros on the door.

To celebrate, here's a poem.

Sailing By

I saw three patrol boats
go sailing by
round the German Bight
to Heligoland
and their wash was a roar
on the beach of sand.

I saw three patrol boats
then I saw three more
just like the others
I had seen before
and their wash was a roar
on the beach of sand.

On the beach of sand
where I was walking
shoes in hand
loudly talking
above the roar
of the wash of the ships on the shore.

A lugworm caught short
a crab overturned
the skirts of a jellyfish
up over its head:
these were the victims
of the waves that roared.

And the bells of my trousers
got slightly wet
and I rang them far
and I rang them wide
and that was all.
And that was all the cost to me.