coming to sea cliffs
the off-shore breeze raises
a flower fragrance
this place is not what it seems
will I find nightmares or dreams
Jane & Cie
Notes:
The Hokku stanza was created by Jane Reichhold (1937 - 2016.) The Akegu stanza was written by me.
If you're interested in the story which inspired my part in the poem, read on. If you really could not GAF, this is your cue to exit!
Among my many WIP projects is a tale called The Legend of Seacliffe, which is set in England in the mid-1800s. As the story begins, a man named Randal Messana takes his team of horses on a desperate ride on a dark and stormy night to get his badly injured mother away from the decidedly unhallowed halls of Lambswood, where the brutal Diamantina Lamb has beaten poor old Guinevere Messana nearly to death.
Randal sees a light burning in a barn near a darkened house and makes his way there to plead for help. There he finds a unique cast of characters: a tall, gaunt, will-o-the-wisp of a grumpy, middle-aged Swede, said grumpy, middle-aged Swede's kindly sister Ragna, and Ragna's husband, a hunchbacked Scot named Charlie, who is playing the piano when Randal arrives.
The trio of misfits in the barn are more than happy to assist Randal but warn him to approach the occupants of the main house with caution. As Jorn, the curmudgeonly Swedish will-o-the-wisp warns: "The masters of Seacliffe are no better than the mistress of Lambswood. To their credit, they have beat no-one to death, at least none of which I know. But they are a foul and inbred line, sticking to their own kind as they believe themselves to be far superior to peasants such as ourselves."
I have numerous WIPs, and sometimes I keep my hand in them by writing poems as placeholders. The above image made me think of Randal walking down to the shoreline and looking out over the bay. Yes, I know that I said the story was set in the mid-1800s. Let us imagine that Randal's clothes are drying and he has borrowed a set of Jorn's long johns to take his morning stroll. After all, Seacliffe House is in a remote area, and it isn't likely that he'd encounter many fellow travelers who might chide him for wandering about in his long johns.
