C.W. Blackburn
12:48 a.m.
(Dedicated to 100 years of BBC Radio 4’s “The Shipping Forecast”)
12.48 a.m., and the night is full of teeth. from the radio arises a river of sound. the air swells suddenly like an angry ocean. riptides threaten to pull me under. my thoughts are long, deep waves, fighting against the antenna’s static. in the eye of the storm, a safe harbour is nowhere to be found. becoming cyclonic, my attention begins to drift, swimming off into an exquisite and immersive absence. as my bedsheets sink beneath the water’s surface, my mouth fills with the taste of rain…
veering slowly,
the low sea breeze
loses its identity—
faraway the dreamers
sail on by...
About the Author
C.W. Blackburn is a mystic poet who lives in Bournemouth, a seaside town on the south coast of England. He has authored five collections of poetry, and his work has also been published in Kindred Spirit, Presence, Ribbons, and Dreich.