5.1.07 Today I received a letter from a friend, who not only is an artist in her own right but also an excellent poetess. I took pictures of a great variety of seaweed all summer but was stuck for words to go with it. Sheena Watson came to Lewis a few years ago and we both remember clearly our walks on the beaches. Her poem seems to be inspired by the sea around us:

Sea Wisdom

Seaweed gather on the edge of Hebridean oceans

as luminosity glitters up from the depths

where fish swim gape-mouthedat the dryness of air
above the perpetually wind-plucked surface.
Volumes of phosphoresence light up
as escaping air is held suspended
ice cold bubbles cylinder flow in staccato form
nothing is crisp all things fluid permeate and mingle.
Fronds waft gently arranging themselves to perform
their linear sea embroidery through sunrays
each trapped in shafts of light which glint
trying to caress liquid filled secret hollows.
They weave silently in coloured costumes
fringes which slip glide onto land to abondon
the everlasting embrace of the ocean.
Flotsam released with every wave
that washes the sand from the shores of our souls.
sheena watson 28.12.06

Heute erhielt ich einen Brief meiner Freundin Sheena Watson, die mich vor einigen Jahren hier besuchte. Ihr Gedicht SEA WISDOM, das Sie in Erinnerung an unsere gemeinsamen Strandspaziergänge schrieb, könnte der lang gesuchte Text für meine neue Mappe werden...