Art, Book reviews, Ceramics, Photographs, Postcards, Quick Fiction, Quotations, and (Usually Aquatic) Reflections.
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Thursday, April 12, 2018
Cargo From Cumae
The boat shifted beneath his feet,
And Trojan Nisus bowed his head,
Grey locks cropped against
The cloy, clammy, clinging weeds
Of long nereid fingers
And longing nereid needs.
Scars he touched and counted breaths . . . .
My favorite word--garsecg--from the Old English Beowulf is a kenning or poetic riddle-word for the sea. It means "the spear-man," perhaps the echo of a figure like the Norse Aegir or some other surly northern Neptune. In other texts, garsecg seems to be an adjective meaning "sea-like," "stormy" or "tempestuous."