Seasick, yet still docked.

For my post graduate course I have been trawling my Norton Anthology of Poetry to find a suitable poem to use in a peer teaching activity next week. I didn't want a poem too archaic, but then I couldn't use a modern Benjamin Zephaniah as I thought it might be too hard to break apart and reassemble.

Stock cheesy photo as I am far to tired to snap my own, that is for a whole new post entirely!

I could sit and read poetry all day. I could bore my peers senseless raving on about Ted Hughes' The Thought Fox and how much I love it, but you know I've got to be diverse yeah? Shakespeare got deemed too intimidating along with Wordsworth and Coleridge. Although I briefly considered the relationship between the two poets and could have totally switched lanes regarding my creative writing peer teach I focused on finding a simple poem rich with everyday words. Khubla Khan is too big a concept to introduce to new poets on virgin territory and The Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti. Well, where do you start with that?

Listen to this glorious poem of MANNNNNNY meanings)

This is such a good recording of this wonderful poem, I dare you to listen to it, and rethink what you think poetry actually is.

Anyway, do you want to know what apt poem I found?

"Sea-Fever"
John Masefield

I must down to the seas again,to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.
I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.
I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.
I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

This poem has a great deal of words about the sea, including the word 'spume'. the most glorious word in the English Language if you were to ask me. So lots of words that can be moved around. Gosh, That was some good thinking on my part. 

Still left wondering why I titled this post with a Morrissey song? Well, it's going to be playing in the background as my peers create poetry. Ta-dahh! I always get him in somewhere. #mozarmy etc.