Holding Ground.
Holding Ground.
Out here the sea is a field of stone
cold striations and turning furrows
weathered rocks scattering the shore
the blackened bones of a long dead harbour
are only visible at low tide
pillars of oak littering the strandline
have held against the salt and surf
and sun for a century or more. If
you can watch the weather rolling in,
meditate on far clouds as they darken,
and sense the year passing like a ghost
then you like a soldier holding at his post
have held against the waves of time.
Out here, hidden between the bladder wrack and brine
what held our boats upon the water
still holds the land and sea together.
About this poem
After a holiday in North East England by the coast I took a photo of an ancient iron ring that used to be part of a timber jetty near Lindisfarne. This poem is inspired by that photo.
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Written on November 28, 2021
Submitted by jamesrwoollard on December 02, 2021
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 43 sec read
- 3 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XXXA XBXX XXCC XBAA |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 661 |
Words | 145 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"Holding Ground." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/114967/holding-ground.>.
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