On our trip to England, we spent four days on the Isle of Wight, a famed haunt of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It is a beautiful place. We were fortunate to stay in the Royal Hotel, perched high above the sea with a magnificent view. This poem is a series of impressions from riding around in the coach (never call it a bus!) and vague ideas about what it might be like, to be a teen or twenty-something with nothing but sea around you and no way to leave except the ferry. I inserted the swallows, after hearing someone rave about the murmurations of swallows they had seen.
Me, personally? I could stay forever.
Crows’ nests in the Y’s
Of the sparsely-leaved trees,
Like little black whirlwinds of stick.
Wire balls and pyramids
Perch on the top
Of the chimneys, so pigeons won’t sit.
Rigid, plump seagulls
Stand watch there, like scarecrows,
While murmurs of swallows all tilt,
Sweeping ravenous brooms
Through the cavernous sky
Till their beaks all with insects are filled.
You need ferries to come here
And ferries to leave.
A palaver, to get off the Isle.
And the farmland is fed
With the woebegone youth,
Discontented, to traipse so few miles.
But they come back, at midlife,
And try it again,
For the call of the sea haunts the brave.
They come back, yes. But stay?
Well, one isn’t quite sure.
Claustrophobia rides on the waves.
Copyright 2023 Andrea LeDew
For a flash fiction piece on another island paradise read My Green Isle. For a poem with connections to island exile, read Of Roses about Josephine and consequently, Napoleon.
Ups and Downs
This week you brought me way back twice: to Lake Harriet School, your beautiful house next to the library, remembering you at my piano; and then to the time I first discovered islands ( in the North See) and then always wanted to see more of them. Sadly, I have not seen Isle of Wight yet. You made me want to go—tomorrow.
Thank you Margrit! We poets and writers do specialize in a form of transportation. I never missed a place so much as when I moved from Minnesota, until I returned from Germany. We lived in a lovely spot! And I assume your memories were as tarnished as mine, when the news of George Floyds death and the Black Lives Matter movement emanated from that same spot and rocked the globe. And made us question our idyllic but perhaps too rosy impressions of what was. The Isle of Wight is very lovely. I hope you get a chance to go! Our tour was of lots of stately homes and castles and amazing hotels. We were lucky to miss the worst crowds in Windsor though we began and ended there on either side of Coronation Week. Seeing my daughter and taking in the gardens of Sissinghurst and Great Dixter were some other highlights. Hope to write in more detail about the trip soon!
The Isle of Wight looks like a beautiful place to visit.
We spent four days there. Lots to see. Osbourne house is especially nice.