Julia Webb's Poetry Masterclass at Gorleston Rural Writes group encouraged one of our members to pen the poem below. It was inspired by our current theme, the Women of Norfolk.
There will be more following very soon.
Thank you Lyn for the lovely engraving which is featured with the poem.
MARY EASTEY AND REBECCA NURSE
Leaving Yarmouth town Plough Monday
Sisters board the brig as though it were
A stepping stone to a dream.
A crescent moon hangs low
Over the black waters of the Yare
Showing their path to the stars.
Ropes are cast and the lights of familiar places
Fall away in the deepening gloom,
Sails flapping, salt spray flying, she’s away
Out into the bay on the rising tide.
Families huddle below creaking decks
As the cradle rocks ominously.
Father Towne watches over his girls,
Sleeping in their woollen shawls,
Their arms around each other.
Was it God who called him to Paradise?
How can he know
Their dark destiny?
Six bells, and a bleak, uncaring morning,
Only the brave are there to see it;
Rough seas break across the bow,
Making the timbers creak in pain.
There are few takers for the bread
And thin soup.
Six year old Mary holds Rebecca’s hand,
Lest she should lose her footing
And be pulled overboard by the sea serpents.
But her sister keeps them at bay,
With stories of lions and tigers,
And kindly strangers.
Two months at sea, with pale faces anxiously
Scanning the horizon, until a lengthy shoreline looms.
There is a service of thanksgiving where
Mary clutches her doll and smiles up at Rebecca.
Who knows what devilment awaits them
In Salem, Mass?
by Lyn McKinney
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