At the lighthouse, the camera pans seabirds nesting on the cliff, kittiwakes rearing chicks, and guillemots laying pear-shaped eggs on the rocky ledge.
You take the steep steps down to the foghorn, clutching the handrail. You breathe in the expanse of the Irish Sea, meets Solway Firth and the North Channel. It is a clear day, and across the vast water, you can see Northern Ireland, the Lakes and the Isle of Man.
You lean over the side of the engine room station, straining your neck, to see guillemots and kittiwakes, perched on the side of the steep, rocky ledge of the cliff.
The foghorn remained silent for years, corroded by the salty air, until recently restored. Now it has found a voice, bellowing across the ocean, under an ever-changing sky of fish scale and fluffy cloud.
First published in Safety in Numbers anthology, A Poetic Conversation, edited by Gill Connors, Yaffle Press
Safety in Numbers is an anthology of poetic conversation with poems that respond to each other in a chain repeating and answering each other’s voices. This book is the result of over 200 women’s responses to each other’s poetry.
Online zoom launch: International Women’s Day 8 Mar 6-30PM
email safepaperchain@gmail.com for the Zoom link
