1318

                         Ibis

                Buffet breakfast

                 Sign for drinks

         Twenty four hour service

                Lifts to all floors

          But oh so much cheaper

                Than a cruise -

  and the floor stays level at all times!

Brian Hick October 2013

©copyright Sally Hick 4.11.24

 1316

Eidfjord

Silent save for paddles slicing

Evenly from side to side

Gliding across glacial waters

Out of Eidfjord on the tide.

Skirt the ship, slip past the river

Where the current speeds up on

Past the pine trees of Hardanger

Past boat-houses and the run

Of the waters on toward Sima

And the heights of Hengegard

Turn to face Vassili egga

Granite sheen above the fjord.

Glacier sliced and stream eroded

Grey cliffs glint in morning light

Indifferent to the line of kayaks

Awestruck, humbled, at their sight.

Cut the surface to move forward

Dip the paddle, sink the blade

Skim the craft across the water

To the falls at Jotengade.

Pause beneath the cleft-cut torrent

Tumbling to the rocks below

Where winter ice and summer storm clouds

Mingle with the melting snow.

Pause to recognise your presence

Free this moment to adore

Recognise in fjord and mountain

All that you created, for

You are in the moving waters

You are in the mists above

You are in the engulfing silence

In the vastness of your love.

Brian Hick autumn 2013 cruise Norway fjords

©copyright Sally Hick 30.10.24  

 1315

It rains in Bergen

Every two days out of three;

The odds are not good.

No wonder Ibsen

Wrote such depressing drama

Living with this rain.

The gang plank is up.

We are about to set sail.

It's just stopped raining.

Brian Hick autumn 2013 on a cruise to Norway

©copyright Sally Hick 28.10.24

 1313

Storms in the North Sea;

Many sick, but we are fine.

Sun in Stavanger.

Where is God in Norway?

Hiding in the rain?

1314

Bergen

The mist closed in from breakfast,

Blocking out the mountains

And the view along the fjord.

Rain is lashing sheets cut in all day

Blurring vision,

Washing out the warmth of ancient buildings

Squat along the quay.

From its open top,

The tourist bus regurgitates the sites by GPS.

Water gardens, weather boards

Flow down damp cobbled streets.

The churches are all closed.

Each tourist shop is stuffed

With the same tat we've just refused,

Or marvelled at the price

they seem to think we'll pay for hand-knitted.

If it really does have so much rain

Perhaps next year we'd better go to Spain,

Brian Hick autumn 2013

©copyright Sally Hick 25.10.24

 1312

Watchman, what have you seen?

            Two hooded crows, grey bodied & black winged

            Pick at the grass.

Watchman, what have you seen?

            A cormorant races across the bows of ships that ply the sound

Watchman, what have you seen?

            Fierce breaking waves on granite rocks wait the unwary.

Watchman, what have you seen?

            Watery sunsets under banks of cloud drifting to greyness.

Brian Hick autumn 2013 on a Fred Olsen cruise to Norway

©copyright Sally Hick 23.10.24

 1311

Grey the day and grey the morning

Grey the fractious, troubled sea

Silent decks and silent people

Till your smile falls on me

Melting greyness into rainbows

Turning waves to sparkled life

Every day, what'er the season

Just because you are my wife.

In memoriam - 1 Sept 1966

Brian Hick September 2012 wedding anniversary

cruise to Norway.

©copyright Sally Hick October 2024

1310

Pernod

With cold fennel soup

Calves liver and onion mash.

Chatter

Everywhere except

Up on deck eight

Where silent stars

Emerge above the distant ships

Glinting glow-worms in the dark

While engines throb a constant heart beat

Sensed, unheard from

Deep below.

Brian Hick autumn 2013 on a Fred Olsen cruise to Norway

©copyright Sally HIck 18.10.24 

 1309

Poems from Norway

All at sea

Here we be

And both agree

This G&T

In the Observatory

Is necessary

To set me free

From the purgatory

Of my workaday

Consultancy.

Brian Hick autumn 2013 On a Fred Olsen cruise to Norway

©copyright Sally Hick 16.1024