HARBOUR BELL

I came out of the north-west Staggering from the storm The surgeons had repaired my body And my mind hung by one hinge So I headed for the coast of Wales To assume the healing rhythm of the sea And breathe the briny air Where no-one knew me Nor called my worn out name Sweet freedom in isolation And so, in smiling solitude I walked and smoked too much Staring at the moody ocean As we all inevitably do As though it holds answers And indeed it does The answer is "being" One hot but breezy day I followed the coast from north to south Not too far but far enough Until I came upon a harbour Tiny and insignificant But a harbour nonetheless With a clutch of small boats Bobbing and swaying lazily On the backwater slack water tide And somewhere close by A nautical bell tolled the rhythm Of an endless heedless movement And an oddly comfortable melancholy Rocked me in it's arms Lost and found Beginning and end In as much as everything matters Though nothing matters much This place was nothing to me No more than countless others But that harbour bell So patient and so constant Touched something deeper than knowledge Perhaps it was the state of my health Or the glowing heat of the day But some vulnerable receptor Vibrated to that gentle toll I've been in many places in my life And seen wondrous famous sights All seared into my minds eye But their memories will last no longer Than the haunting harbour bell By Phil Roberts

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