the edge of the world

Caught a piece on Radio 4 this morning, celebrating the fact that the 'Shipping Forecast ' is now, rather remarkably, 100-years old this month ...

... so; here is Carol Ann Duffy's famous poem, which references four of the UK's coastal sea areas:


Prayer

Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.

Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.

Pray for us now. Grade 1 piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child's name as though they named their loss.

Darkness outside. Inside, the radio's prayer —
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.

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Carol Ann Duffy (1955 - )

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