Leaving the Hills

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Friday Poem – ‘Dannie’s Rock’ by Tony Curtis

Photo of foamy waves washing against a rocky shore

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Dannie’s Rock’ by Tony Curtis from his new collection Leaving the Hills.

Dannie’s Rock i.m. Dannie Abse Countless low tides leaving the Ogmore beach wide For walks, French cricket and burying fathers. Out to the west, half way to England, it seems, The sea baring its black teeth shows Tusker Rock, Ynys Twsgwr, tu skar, stark above the flat water, Fangs shown only because of the wrecks – A wheelhouse, ribs, blown open boiler room, Propellor, capstan, winch and chains, The long-broken spine of the S.S. Liban lost in a storm, And many others. The dead sailors and a child, All those who floundered, drowned, falling From the tilting decks to their cold deaths. A colony of starfish and mussels and goose barnacles Live and prosper on what we leave. The sea scans the same measured syllables, Songs that sound out of the scored waves. There are more stories to tell – Britten, Debussy, Always more music to raise from the chains of the deep; For these blind rocks, Dannie, Could never satisfy the hungers of our sea.

This poem was first published in Poetry Wales Magazine. You can download their special ebook Doctor and Magician: A Tribute to Dannie Abse, published to celebrate Dannie Abse’s centenary, from their website.

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