St Malo

I was there, and wrote this

a tall blonde, white plaited with salt

all elbows and knees, a new menhir

on a tided stage of

tidewash and wind, crouched under

a sky of ovens and red brick,

serious and wide-eyed

before a sandring that loses

its smile as the sun drowns;

the sea turns to black.

Reviews

[John]

The poem, I think, questions the propensity to create and find figures in a landscape, be it the building and naming of a city (after a saint), or humorously identifying the city as an attractive person, or seeing it as a kind of monument, evidence of man's presence, by reducing it to its basic element stone. There's a shift in tone from playful to serious as 'tided' replaces 'tidewash', artifice yields to nature, and nature of course finally wins out, as it always does. What's really impressive in this piece is that the poem, in one sweeping sentence, can embrace this shift in perspective. There is a parallel here in the implacable forces that finally and irrevocably destroy man's great handiwork.

[Leslie Philibert]

Thanks for the excellent and detailed review, I`m glad you liked it.Not being much of a poet I have to work hard to get some good lines together, and I`m pleased when my work is liked.
Best wishes...

[escherflight]

Is the tall blonde a metaphor for a tall ship? I remember being in St. Malo and watching the sun set and being surprised by how quickly darkness fell and how the sea was suddenly tar black. 'white plaited with salt' - lovely image. I like the oxymoron of the 'new menhir' too.

[Tina Kline]

A very vivid and visual poem.
I think its well written and fantastic!

[Ruth]

Leslie - you are a brilliant crafter of words - sensational! x

[Ken Simm.]

A remarkable use of words to pin the picture exactly in the readers mind and then, wonder of wonders take it further into the metaphysical. This is a complete picture on all levels.