We steamed along the coastline,

From the shore

A dot of a yacht.

In turn, the land for me

Danced back and forth.

Cliffs dipped,

Headlands bowed,

A beach was sheathed,

A blade of sable light.

Gently, the land stood back,

Visual murmurs of its presence

Shadows in a November dusk:

Last glimpses of earth

Before the great open water.

Goodbye, I thought,

Uncertain, detaching

And turned.

I was under way.

14th July 2021 – after Biscay, November 1982.