Storm Force

"The wind awoke last night with so noble a violence that it was like the war in heaven; and I thought for a moment that the Thing had broken free. For wind never seems like empty air. Wind always sounds full and physical, like the big body of something; and I fancied that the Thing itself was walking gigantic along the great roads between the forests of beech." GK Chesterton

Very windy last tonight, and saw pictures on Facebook of the Granville Normandie trawler heading out to sea; I thought of "The Ghost and Mrs Muir" (one of my favourite films), where the ghostly Captain Clegg says

"All those comfortable swabs who sit at home in their beam-ends reveling in the luxuries that seamen risk their lives to bring to them...and despising the poor devils if they so much as touch a drop of rum, and-- and even sneering at people who try to do them some good like you and me."

and I thought of those fisherman, paid a pittance to go out in dangerous seas to bring fish to us, and wrote this...

Storm Force

Out in all weathers, ever brave
The trawler-men on restless wave
The waves so high, the ocean deep
No time for rest, no time for sleep
The fishing boat now leaves the quay
To face the peril on the sea.

Departing shores, leave coastal bird
Sail troubled waters, undeterred
The wind is rising, foaming deep
The sailor steadfast watch does keep
The fishing boat the storm does flee
For there is peril on the sea.

Into the maelstrom, Poseidon's feud
With those who take the sea's own food
And pray that angry tumult cease
And give, for wild confusion, peace
The fishing boat seeks calmer lee
Escape from peril on the sea.

This night the waves shall not devour
Despite the wind with mighty power
The tempest conjured now does slow
With gentler currents, calmer flow
Weigh anchor now, no need to flee
Sing songs of joy across the sea.