Matthew Penson is a poet and musician who has worked for many years offshore. He is inspired by mysticism - in particular, Sufism - and Surrealism.
SEA PAYNE'S GREY
I.
Offshore Rig
The sea: pain's grey.
Asking Shell, Our Lady Stella Maris,
why have you given your blue dress away?
Next to the diesel tank,
web-spinning here, amongst
rust and putrid matter, is pointless.
Rig lizard,
clinging to the engineered tree.
Ten thousand waves: legs sinking.
A Tollund down there in the well:
the salamander bull-headed,
amongst the toric annuli of Sheol.
If I could crawl inside a stone,
a red hand would bide with me
in this swell.
NORFOLK BROADS
Lapwing: Lissajous over Breydon flats,
upon the ocean mat of consciousness. . .
to walk beneath the blackthorns,
their fragrance breathes over the reeds,
and to be the rush cutter who holds all this gold in his arms.