The Sea Farer

Water will find its natural course,
an uncomplicated route at its heart,
pure, pulling towards magnetic poles, 
knowing where it naturally flows,
the heaving ocean connecting you and I.

I am told, Homo erectus walked out of Africa,
following rivers downstream,
into estuaries; even wider, tracking coastline;
ancestral arrows protecting the enchantment 
of hips, women swollen and pregnant;
Men: procreation, masters of survival.

In the northwest, they stepped into cowhide boat,
taken on Autumn currents, 
from heat to frost the sea farers….

feet were				   Calde geþrungen
locked in ice,				wæron mine fet, 
bound in frost				forste  gebunden
and hardship groaned		caldum  clommum, 
Around my heart.			þær þa  ceare  seofedun
					   hat  ymb  heortan.
Hunger tore				Hungor  innan  slat
At my sea-weary soul.		merewerges  mod.
Hail flew in showers...		hægl scurum fleag...
I heard nothing
but the roaring sea,			butan hlimman sæ,
the ice-cold wave	

to disembark in blue midnight - grid reference 1444
finding footing on Sinemurian strata.
It is here, I fell with you, into the blackthorn of my past,
feeling the wild animal inside, stir,
coaxing courage yet again,
to fearlessly embrace the unknown. 


(Excerpt taken from the Anglo Saxon Old English text; The Sea Farer from the Exeter Book)



Viv Grant