I was walking up on the headland at Sewerby overlooking Bridlington. The sun was setting and light was great. A copse of trees caught my eye. Reminded me of Hockney!
Poetry – The Gansey Girl
The Gansey Girl
Patiently sitting, waiting,
with her three needles, knitting
Her Gansey sweater
For her fisherman.
Each sweater unique
So the body can be identified
When fished out of the sea.
Close-knit, in one piece,
To keep the elements at bay.
Self-consumed, thoughtful,
Content, but on edge.
Patient and reconciled,
Avoiding thinking
Of the possibility,
Not looking out to sea,
Controlled, focused inside.
Around her hem
Shoals of fish swim
Above her buttoned boots.
Her face, whimsical,
Not pretty yet handsome and kind.
Her clothes patterned and full
But nowhere near as intricate
As the product of her round needles.
All her love
pouring into the work
Out of her fingers,
The intricacy of the pattern,
That she wished
Never to see
Washed up
In some future nightmare,
Like so many before her.
Frozen in that moment for ever.
Her young fulsome body
Captured in that instant.
The tension of the vigil evident.
All her fears expressed
In the concentration of her stance
So understated.
A Gansey girl.
One of many
Who spent an eternity
Hovering in anxious calm,
Waiting.
Out at sea,
Among the heavy rollers,
With the icy spray,
Stinging wind
And lightning strike;
Pitted against the elements,
Hauling nets,
Lugging fish,
Tossed like a toy,
Earning a living,
Her man.
On the ocean
With the pitch and yaw,
Drenched and ripped by waves,
Laughing into a gale,
Knowing,
Challenging,
Pushed to the limits,
Accepting and enduring
The dangerous test.
Seeking the rewards,
The fulfilment,
The pride,
The camaraderie,
Companionship,
That comes with such danger,
When men work
As a team.
A test of manhood.
So the Gansey girl
Does what she can.
She knits and waits
Like so many others.
Her face controlled,
Introspective,
Sad and accepting,
Her attitude reflective.
The emotions stored
Waiting to erupt.
Opher 6.1.2019.
I wrote this poem after spending time with the wonderful statue of the Gansey Girl by the brilliant sculptor Steve Carvill.
Sitting serenely on the pier she sees out the boats and welcomes them back in.
She is a reminder of a past age, of the dangers of the sea; a reminder of the present day, where dangers are not all gone; and a warning.
Fishing is a hard life. There has been a heavy cost.
Poetry – Bridlington Bay – an ode
Bridlington Bay – an ode
This morning we walked the shore at Bridlington Bay.
The cold still air on our faces,
The winter sun gliding through the sky
Peeping through the misty cloud
Like a moon
Lost in the daylight.
On the beaches the dogs played,
Running free on the wet sands,
Sands revealed by the retreating waves,
As seagulls circled and swooped
With raucous calls.
In the harbor the sanderlings and sandpipers
Pecked a living from the mud,
Industriously trotting and bobbing
To pick invisible morsels,
Oblivious to us.
We walked the length of the bay and back,
Past shuttered ice-cream parlours,
Closed museums and deserted funfairs,
Stranded speed boats and the pirate ship.
A flock of Turnstones skimmed
And wheeled across the wet sand
With black and white flashes
Of wings and body.
A speedy flock,
To swoop and come to rest
On the edge of the promenade
Under the balustrade,
Ignoring the dog walkers and couples
Walking past,
Habituated to humans.
We stopped to admire
The Gansey girl,
Frozen in time,
Waiting patiently
On the pier.
We passed the facades
Of the Punch and Judy and the clowns,
Past the brightly coloured
Beach chalets,
Waiting for summer.
Then back to the plaque
To the two Hawaiian Princes
Who introduced surfing
To Britain from this very beach.
Who had their boards fashioned
By local boat builders.
We read about the exploits
Of Amy Johnson, of Lawrence of Arabia,
Nelson and Captain Cook,
Whose connections
Were renowned.
Then coffee and soup
Overlooking the bay
As the light played
Across the beach and water,
Creating a changing
Mosaic of beauty.
Back along the promenade,
Reading the poems
And words
Set in stone,
Thinking,
Enthralled,
Peering out to sea
And contemplating
The nuance.
Just a few hours
In a tableau
Stretching back
Across centuries,
Millenia,
Of unrelenting, gradual change –
Onward into the unknown.
A tableau
In which
We play
A fleeting role,
As Bridlington Bay
Evolves.
Opher 6.1.2019
There is something magical about walking by the sea. In winter, when the place is shut down and there are no crowds to push through, we see a different side.
There is a beauty, a peace, and time to contemplate. Nature is evident, going on around us, used to us, ignoring our presence.
Among the deserted trappings of the gaudy entertainment it is easy to imagine the intransigence of our presence.
When we are gone and the evidence of our presence is confined to a layer in the rock the bay will prevail.
Walking along the wintry beach at Bridlington
The Beauty of Bridlington – Photos
The Gansey Girl – Bridlington Sculpture
The Gansey Girl – Bridlington Sculpture
The Gansey Girl is a sculpture by Steve Carvill. It is situated on the pier at Bridlington. It depicts a girl sitting there knitting while she waits for her man to come back from fishing.
Gansey sweaters were knitted by the wives for their husbands. It is an East Riding corruption of Guernsey. A Gansey was normally knitted in blue and white in distinctive patterns. They served two purposes. Firstly they kept the men warm on their long fishing trips out into the frigid North Sea. Secondly they helped identify them when their bodies were washed up. After time in the water the jumper was the only identifying feature.
Fishing was one of those working class trades that was exciting, well paid, hard and exceedingly dangerous. It has largely gone now and has been industrialised, mechanised and taken over by the huge fishing companies.
I think the sculpture captures the emotions of the girl as she patiently waits for her man to return and knits him a new sweater – a Gansey Sweater.
Birds at Bridlington Jan 2017
The Gansey Girl – Bridlington Sculpture
The Gansey Girl is a sculpture by Steve Carvill. It is situated on the pier at Bridlington. It depicts a girl sitting there knitting while she waits for her man to come back from fishing.
Gansey sweaters were knitted by the wives for their husbands. It is an East Riding corruption of Guernsey. A Gansey was normally knitted in blue and white in distinctive patterns. They served two purposes. Firstly they kept the men warm on their long fishing trips out into the frigid North Sea. Secondly they helped identify them when their bodies were washed up. After time in the water the jumper was the only identifying feature.
Fishing was one of those working class trades that was exciting, well paid, hard and exceedingly dangerous. It has largely gone now and has been industrialised, mechanised and taken over by the huge fishing companies.
I think the sculpture captures the emotions of the girl as she patiently waits for her man to return and knits him a new sweater – a Gansey Sweater.
Photography – Wallabies with Joeys at Bridlington Animal Park
Photography – Windy day at Bridlington, rough sea and wind surfers.
