1219
Sun and wind and sea
Autumnal mists linger, where the trees
Silhouette, before the morning sun
Warms away the grey expanse to ease
Its daily resurrection.
Breakers dash each other to the shore
Spilling white foamed flecks along the strand
Where solitary walkers risk the raw
North-eastern as it reaches land.
Sun and wind and sea move as they must
Indifferent to the lives of you and me
Who, before we're rendered back to dust,
Would make some sense of what we see.
But sun and wind and sea move on
And, just as quickly, we are gone.
Brian Hick October 2012
©copyright Sally Hick 19.9.24
1023
September Sunset
The tide is at its lowest and the light
On this September evening is at odds
With Katrina's tail, which aids the flight
Of wind-surfers, but leaves the sky in nods
Of gently moving clouds and deepening blue.
Mud flats lie at ease and private yachts
Stuck toy-like on their keels await their cue
To bob when tidal rushes surge in knots.
But for now, the turning of the tide,
Against the twilight, brings a sudden calm
As if the gusting evening winds had lied
And all is bluster but no deep harm.
Here upon the terrace, my pint glass
Is half full, as the moments gently pass.
Brian Hick September 2011
©copyright Sally Hick 25.10.23
1006
Four old men, sitting in the corner,
Arguing about the R A F
Oblivious to the sea beyond the terrace,
Immersed in memories of what is left.
'Did you know that Johns was not a catain
And what about the oil that leaked away
While he was landing? Have you got the sugar?
Oh, please, no more chips today!'
Across the road, the wavelets turn in silence
Ruffled by the wind but not upset
Even by the centuries of blindness
Which pass for human influence and wit;
For they know that when these humans have passed on
This surf will still be singing its own song.
Brian Hick autumn 2011
©copyright Sally Hick 5.10.23
963
Wave
The sea was calm.
I was no more than an idea
Lurking in the mind of the wind
Which licked and hissed, cajoled,
Until, out of the mass of water
I started to evolve.
Gradually, without any effort on my part,
I came into being, growing even stronger.
The coast could not endure my might;
Rocks and matter smashed as I broke on them
Rolling all before me
Knwing nothing
Had my strength,
Until
On that same instant
I was gone -
A back draft and a trail of bubbles
All that for a second seemed to hang
Before the waters hid me and
The sea was calm.
Dr Brian Hick summer 2011
©copyright Sally Hick 21.7.23
The Hard
Trying to find somewhere to eat, I walk
Down faceless sixties streets, past office blocks
And civic sites, depression setting in
With every step, until I come upon
Some trees leaning towards the rising sun
Moulded by the wind from out the channel
Terns casting themeselves upon the breeze
To float and skim on currants I can't see
But blustering round me, buffeting my nose
With rotting seaweed, hanging on the stumps
Of sea defences stranded by the tide,
As storm clouds cluster off the Isle of Wight.
Still nowhere to eat, but by the bay
The Channel winds have blown my blues away.
Brian Hick at Southampton
©copyright Sally Hick 14.10.22
Strand
This must be the best time of year.
The beach huts are all locked, the schools are back,
A solitary walker with her dogs
Pads quietly along the water's edge.
The sky mocks at the date, its radiant blue
Willing me to think it is July
Rather than late September, for the sea
Is calm, almost to indolence, each wave
Hardly finding the energy to break
And trickle over pebbles as it basks
Soaking up the silence of the day
As it has done, since the world began.
Brian HIck autumn 2009
©copyright Sally HIck 7.9.22
1651
The horizon looked as if a child had drawn
A thick blue line across a pale page
Leaving the sky and all the sea below
Like some vast mirror, so I could hardly gage
Which was which until, almost unseen,
The brown sails of a Thames Barge caught my eye
Cutting slowly towards Beachy Head
Its silent form securing sea and sky,
As if the chaos of the universe
Could be resolved by one simplistic sight,
A tiny speck to confirm up and down
And make me realise that I was right.
If only all the problems that confuse
Could be absolved by such a simple ruse.
