Tuesday Poem: Estuary

I've just received the proofs of 'Estuary',  the new Anthology of art and poetry edited by Agnes Marton and Harriette Lawler and it's very exciting.  I've been paired with French painter Veronique Brosset, and it looks like this.....

And the poem on the opposite page looks like this (poem also copied below for clarity) ......

Estuary: A Confluence of Art and Poetry will be published soon by Moon and Mountain Press in the USA.  Contributors I'm familiar with include Pascale Petit, Ian Duhig, Michelle McGrane, Kim Moore and Abegail Morley, and there are many more international poets whose work is new to me.  It's a lovely project and I'm delighted to be part of it, and particularly to be the title poem!

The Estuary
            swills
out this waste of silt,
        through
wandering seines
    of water,
         empties and fills,
empties and fills,
        twice a day. 
The sludge looks solid. 
            Deceitful.
A boat has been drowned
    in it.
        The wooden hull
curves up, like a shell
    wedged in the sea floor
under the tide. 
             The sea
is a glittering rumour
              of  light where
sky and estuary meet,
              a salt aftertaste in the air.
I’m not here for the weather,
            or bathing,
this sea is too withdrawn
            for conversation.
I just want an idea of ocean,
    the tides, the drag of the moon,
the smell of sea fog.
             I want to examine
the wreckage, discover the shallow
    prints your feet made, among
            the birds’ pocked
    marks on the mud.  Put mine
beside them, hoping
        to last a few millennia
slowly fossilising
        into bedrock.

For more Tuesday Poems please pop over to the Tuesday Poem hub and take a look at other contributions from around the world.