Survivors: Poem

I’ve been working on this poem since Nigel came home with the beautiful sunset photos he took at St Clair in Dunedin. The St Clair’s piles date back to 1921 and are remnants of a double-row of posts that with the addition of planks formed a groyne to retain sand. Apparently southerly seas took sand away and easterly seas replenished it. Debate about the utility of groynes at St Clair has raged over much of the century and continues to this day! Nowadays the few remaining piles are old, weathered and rapidly disappearing – its questionable if any of them will be around in a couple of years for their 100-year anniversary. To learn about their history I read this ODT article

St Clair Beach, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand

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Tidal canvas for beautiful reflections at St Clair, Dunedin, New Zealand. Old groyne piles that date back to 1921, survivors. *Click on photo to enlarge* By Nigel, 31 Jan 2019

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Survivors

— by Liz Cowburn

[piles’ perspective]

Sentinals of the sand,
we stand

Driven deep to defend
this beach

Regimental relics – we resist,
persist

Fight for footing! Look to the land,
the sand!

*****

[my perspective]

Battered, beaten by tidal terrors ‘the breakers’
— bowed but not cowed

Centred in a century’s swirling currents,
St Clair’s piles sink, subside…

Yet…

THESE  SURVIVE !!!

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Taken by Nigel

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You might also enjoy another poem I wrote this summer to celebrate the return of delicious, ripe Central Otago cherries:   Pop Goes The Cherry

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Poem by Liz, photo by Nigel; Exploring Colour (2019)