Laminaria digitata – Oarweed

Great hand, whose fingers
raked through the sea
no longer holding fast
but now your ghost displayed
as it reached for the sun
a dream of the meadows
where your brothers and sisters
swayed with applause
delight of urchins,
a tidal clap
breaking free to rush alongside
swarthy boats,
palm to palm with the oars

I’m not sure how much of a deal I’ve made about it here on my poetry blog, but I am a major cyanotype enthusiast, and have a tendency to make a lot of them. You can see some of them on my website. Two years ago, I saw a post on Hundred Heroines’ instagram – a call for poetry ekphrastic style in response to Anna Atkin’s cyanotypes. HERE you can learn about Anna Atkins, if she’s a new name for you. THIS was the instagram post.

Of course I was interested, and had a wonderful time picking out some pieces of hers to write for! I’m not sure what happened to the project; I know I sent off the email but this was a couple of years ago and it’s all water under the bridge. So I’m sharing them with you now – the result of my enthusiasm for an art form and a bunch of research I did on the types of “algaes” she used for her work. Thank you for reading – stay tuned for a few more of these!