Over Cataplana--By Ralph Stott--England

Over Cataplana

With carpenter’s eyes I’d follow,
To the sea and it’s waves below.

And imagine these waves as words,
Glistening amongst the sea birds.

Soon they’d move, as lines to the shore
As written crests above the raw!

A passage from a deep lament?
From distant oceans surely sent.

All written in a foreign tongue;
A poem spoken, now is sung:

“Oh vingress - jah-lub-a-blew-wee!”*
(The waves too, sound phonetically).
                *   *   *
We sit and talk of the future;
Bared with scars and tiny sutures!

A pale past rising through our tans
(Your tiny boatman, oars outspanned).

My hands sliced by chisel and plane,
Forgotten scars that still remain.

Rowing there on a meniscus,
Sea-soaked sand as tiny couscous.

*the sound of a Portuguese doughnut salesman.
Cataplana--(Portuguese fish stew)

Ralph Stott was born in Kent, England in 1957. He is married and has two daughters.  He studied design at the Medway College of Design in the mid-70's. Expressing ideas through the written/visual media, has always interested him. Ralph began to dedicate more time to poetry with The Writers and Poetry Alliance, in particular the 'Stylists' forum, over the last 3 years. He has self published one book called Legends For Lunchtime; a collection of short stories and has a second book pending called Twist and Twist Again, which is a collection of Twister poems, a form he created.