Cave In A Crumbling Cliff Poem by jim hogg

Plash and boom of waves in cave
A door padlocked in vain
Steps lead down or up
And pebbles crunch
Under waves, under seaboots
And old dreams

You would live there
If your corpse didn't drag you off

The hearth and love
Pull and pull against
Oars along the heaving edge
Into an age when miners camped down there
Safe in huts like shepherds on the cold high moor
Or lobsters in crevices
beyond the broken wave
beyond the need to be
anything but yourself

The peace and rhythms there
rescue hearts
by the serenade of dark grey water
kissing cliff - tide of light and lost world
that pulls and pulls by the dead man's gate
by Velvet Isle to Manhaven Bay:

a boat to carry on your back
a shell against the songs of crumbling
and the scar on your chest
and the tide of time

I saw you from my crumbling edge
and rowed with you
as far as the mind would travel
and the wind forgive
and cannot go back
or never leave.


Lizard Point, South Shields