Ahoy from Cap’n Bev here to cheer our 100th session of Water Story as we move into our seventh year.
Larry Butler (Sukhema) cast us off in 2016 and our exploration of story, as reflected in water, has happened mostly on the Forth & Clyde Canal (thanks to Navvies’ Barge) and the bonny loch (thanks to Cruise Loch Lomond). We’ve had a host of guest authors and an ever changing, yet somehow constant, crew of writers.
Several new groups have been launched from our decks including Slow Ink (Mindfulness & Writing), Lifebelters and the FFS (Flaming Flower Society – so named after a tea light set a dry flower arrangement alight during a Zoom session). Our writers have filled the sails with reams of inspired writing, several having won competitions and found publication.
The greatest achievement is our relentless good cheer and wellness arising from shared contemplation of a world gone difficult, if not slightly mad.
Here’s a video of one of our journeys.
This poem by Pat Sutherland (pictured above) also gives you a taste of one of our sessions.
Porthole
Through the porthole
the trees pass in procession,
graceful branches Tai Chi swaying.
Dog roses drift in, blowing
pink kisses,
bramble blossom promises
bounty to come.
Nature has reached her peak,
her zenith of greenness,
parading in full uniform,
epaulettes and all,
waving her flags.
Today she cares nothing
that her colours will rust
and winter will snatch her curling leaves
and scythe her grass:
for spring will follow
to herald another summer
celebration.
Nature through the porthole
affirms the fatal dissonance,
our niggardly four seasons:
we bud and grow, blossom
and wither, rootless
in arid earth
that knows no spring.
This day, of sun and dappled shadow,
of light on water
we will hold dear.