At Home With What You Know

Bempton Cliffs

A gannet glides through air above the sea.

They nest in thousands on the cliffs below,

returning to the same place every year,

the sheer rock-face, the rocky promontory,

a colony with right of passage here,

instinctively at home with what they know.

 

A novice with binoculars, I spy

two puffins on a ledge, a kittiwake

in flight, a guillemot, a razorbill,

a fulmar. Birds and more birds fill the sky

or dive into the sea to make a kill,

one rising with a fish caught in its beak.

 

The din is almost deafening, a sound

that carries inland over fields of grain

where sparrows dance to some quite different tune,

the seabirds like the souls of those who’ve drowned

clamouring to be heard. We leave too soon

but clouds on the horizon herald rain.

 

by Philip Lyons

 

This poet was inspired by a trip to Bempton Cliffs, somewhere I visited at the weekend. It's an awe-inspiring spot to watch the thousands of sea birds busily going about their business. Most visitors go at this time of year to spot puffins, but I was captivated by the gannets, our largest sea bird, with a wingspan of two metres. They pair for life and return to the same nest site each year. How they manage to find the exact right spot is a miracle. 

 

Click here to listen to Joni Michell's beautiful 'Song to a Seagull.'

 

Writing Prompts:

• Is there somewhere you return to every year? Write about it for a few minutes, explaining why you are drawn to this place.
• Write about what you are 'instinctively at home with'? 
• When was the last time you heard a 'din' that was 'almost deafening'? In your writing, describe the sound and how it made you feel.
• Can you remember a time when you had to leave somewhere, or someone 'reluctantly' and 'too soon'? Write about that memory.

What is the secret of success for couples who 'pair for life'?

 

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