The reservoir at Drift.
It is evening.
Deserted picnic benches, fishing signs.
Tension – depths of dark water,
a high retaining wall.
I walk along the parapet.
I look down.
I look across.
On the far shore a dead swan lies
breast blown, rib cage exposed,
feet blackwebbed leather,
a far scattering of feathers.
Hurriedly I walk back across the parapet
where my friends wait.
It is a silent eerie place.
I would not like to be here
on my own.
I like that. A sense of looming catastrophe, and what's hidden below, but might emerge at any time. Big themes!
Hi Greg - yes, I agree on both counts! In a way it's maybe like a sketch in a sketchbook, but you don't know if you'll ever make a proper painting of it. But I had to write something about that place. I think that with reservoirs, it's the tension that there is this great wall keeping all that weight of water in, what if it was breached? Also, what is underneath all the water, could be a submerged town, anything (though not in Drift - but maybe a cottage or two). That's why I thought those scenes in "Deliverence" were so brilliant, when the guys with the diggers are removing the coffins from the graveyard, cos a reservoir was going to fill the valley.
Ann, I feel these are really notes for a poem, that it's not quite finished yet. I don't like reservoirs ... that volume / depth of water gives me the creeps. I prefer them when they're half-empty because of drought; more vulnerable. You get the odd wading bird along the shore then, too.
Thanks Shirley - I think the swan's death was accidental, maybe due to some sort of fishing line or something. Reservoirs do seem to be popular with fishermen. Perhaps I should have reported it? I didn't think of that till I read your comment.
I like this poem.
Very descriptive.
A little sad.
It seems someone killed the swan for sport.
Nice photo.
Good writing.
Shirley
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Ann Foxglove
Mon 12th Sep 2011 15:29
Thanks Greg - maybe an idea I can indeed work from then! (Give it more depth if you forgive the pun!)