servants of the horizon

Here's one of the poems from within the pictured Andrew Greig collection, which was published in 2013 ...

... the volume recounts (in poetic sequence) the tale of his open dinghy voyage from Stromness, in Orkney, to the island of Cava. The whole sequence has also been made into a Theatre-play:


Event Horizon

And we ourselves
freed slaves, bound gods,
unmade men, rulers of little craft,
servants of the horizon

- that is to say, sailors - 

happily or fearfully think of our lives
going forward and clockwise
when we are pulled sideways and widdershins
by forces so pervasive
we don't even see them.

Still bend we must
over chart, compass, protractor,
and hazard our best guess.

Flick of sail, bird on the horizon.
Hold to that? No, adjust,
adjust.

---

Andrew Greig (1951 - )

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