Dead Good Poets

East Timor, September 1999

Exchanging Words

The Sea the Sea

The Dead Good Poets online anthology of poetry by writers from and associated with Aberdeen was published in 2006/2007 with funding from Aberdeen City Council.

For more information about the literary scene in Aberdeen and North-East Scotland please see North East Writers.

The Sea the Sea

Olivia McMahon

I like being by the sea
watching its ins and outs
its changing colours
the way it gets ruffled suddenly
works itself into a right frenzy
and then calms down again
as if nothing had happened.

I don't much like being on the sea in a little boat
I'm either bored
or terrified —
the placid companion turned lout.

And I don't care for being in the sea —
I swim to-and-fro
forever checking the bottom with a toe
never bold enough to swim out.

But gazing from my director's chair
sipping a Gin and T I love the sea
and I have the feeling
that the sea loves me.

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