Shipping lines

In Competition No. 3027 you were invited to submit a poem inspired by the Shipping Forecast.
 
Life-saver, lullaby, poetic reminder of our maritime heritage, the Shipping Forecast celebrated its 150th anniversary this year. Charlotte Green has described it as the nearest she ever came to reading poetry on air; Carol Ann Duffy ended her poem ‘Prayer’ with the lines ‘Darkness outside. Inside, the radio’s prayer —/ Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre’; and Seamus Heaney wrote a beautiful sonnet ‘The Shipping Forecast’.
 
Its incantatory magic inspired a entry that was funny, poignant and varied, in both content — cricket, adultery, the choppy waters of Brexit — and form (haiku, sonnet, villanelle…). The winners, printed below, take £30 each. D.A. Prince snaffles the extra fiver.
 

Valentia, my sweetest love,
Sandettie’s playing jazz above
while we let Ardnamurchan point
the Scilly way to light a joint.
We’re in our Forties so we know
how German Bight can spoil the show;
to me your Sole Bay spirit’s dearer
than both the kingdoms of Utsire.
 
My love, Valentia, my dear,
your Biscay’s now becoming clear;
the Cape Wrath of our youth is past
and we are Fastnet bound at last.
Let trumpets make the Malin ring
and Rockall dance and Dogger swing.
We’ll Lundy on without a care
until we reach our Finisterre.
D.A. Prince
 
Nicely spoken palpitations
In the early hours of night:
Steadily, like incantations:
Fisher, Dogger, German Bight.
 
As the sleepless settle in
To the darkness they patrol,
As stealthy as a bedouin:
Lundy, Fastnet, Shannon, Sole.
 
A roll, a schoolboy brotherhood,
Uttered to the teacher’s liking —
Hoping for the comment, ‘Good’:
Rockall, Malin, Bailey, Viking.
 
Perhaps a tribute to the lost,
Now their bitter lives are over —
Quietly, their graves embossed:
Fitzroy, Biscay, Portland, Dover.
Bill Greenwell
 
Do not go gentle to the German Bight
Rage, rage and rowing keep the sea at bay;
Be like a Viking ready for a fight.
And when you leave the sanctuary of Wight,
The waves will thunder, menacingly grey.
Do not go gentle to the German Bight.