A Brush with Words: Cornwall (towards Cudden Point)

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Oil on board 18″ x 22″

Continuing in our look back at the art and poetry exhibition, ‘A Brush with Words’, here is ‘Cornwall’ by Mark Bennett, which inspired the poem ‘Stitching it Up’ by Amanda Attfield

‘Stitching It Up‘ (for Cornwall)

Who takes the ocean’s chest measurement,

the length of the shore to elbow, shoulder to hill,

and inside leg, so that it fits so neatly

around cliffs, rocks, and the blushing bride sky?

The water tailors have been busy. They have

tidied away the seaweed, neatened all the seams

to better than French. It’s calm now, but they

are dressing for death. Somewhere a mackeral

trawler cuts along to its end, you can hear

their songs - Leave Her Johnny and Billy Riley.

There’s a line of tacking from the horizon.

Wake up the tailors, sack them for their easy

slackness. The business of the day is not yet done.

There’s an unfinished journey towards the sun.

Amanda Attfield