During lockdown I was asked by Torbay Council to write poems about the Brixham trawlers and the fishing industry in general. It was not something I knew much about and came as something of a surprise for an LGBTQIA etc poet whose normal output concerns all sorts of urban foibles such as why do they re-arrange supermarket displays, and being envious of beards.
During the writing process my producer, (yes!, they assigned me a producer. How grown up is that?), suggested I look at the environment around Brixham. As it was, I was also doing a free course online to pass the time, about the ecosystem of seagrass and mangrove environments.
Go to Fishcombe Cove, she said, and see what you might come up with. And this poem was it.
Of the poems in my resultant collection Squidbox, (published 2020 by Torbay Culture), https://www.amazon.co.uk/Squidbox-Poems-Brixham-fishing-industry-ebook/dp/B0GKYPB7S4?ref_=ast_author_dp_rw&th=1&psc=1&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.4cEtlwsYPzBOmGeNJJQn0KbJo8mXZzgXbHSqpckFi3S3sePx5bQy5jgw3a5p914255FmOi4THHoaiGPZ8i153azUUSvv7qjB9oHpaygBisOFZFPQI19_-wQiWtt9uaLxLXjT-bX08nKNw9A6J2wx3g.iZoeiLtsEUx4lEFgTmGRG6ft6Gkg7kN21h6Up9ZV8oY&dib_tag=AUTHOR this has been my favourite to perform. This particularly performance was in Penzance last year.
Robert Garnham 