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PER MARE PER TERRAM

Chant du monde boréal
Shoormal.
Sandshifter, 60N.
Where it all makes sense.


CHRONICLES FROM ARCANIA

Preamble

Through Chronicles from Arcania, I shall attempt to share walks with you, this poetics from 60N, where I feel at one with our Earth, my sense of place so maritime.


Saturday 28 August 2010

We are from the stars and the sea

Wherever I look, I lose myself in the great waterworld

I often describe my island as a long sausage - so narrow, so close we all live to the water's edge.
We, the people of the north sea, north atlantic and nordic world, we can't escape from wind and spray.
So we build boats to weave friendship and connections.


Da boat, as it is known on all fringes of my island, has long remained the traditional means of transport... 
 
We have special boats here on this latitude, handcrafted and modelled on the viking one... Wood and rivets, kabe, hamle- humli- humblyband.

Ropes, lines, riggings

...Wood and rivets, kabe, hamle- humli- humblyband. To me it sounds like a rengaine, earth leitmotive... And when I tie it to a friend, our nomadism braves each wave from Bressay Sound to the Firth of Lorn :-)) 


What does it mean to the nomad? ...An opening to our own world.

6 comments:

  1. Dear Nat...do You ever receive visitors?....just musing, wandering, dreaming...longing!!

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  2. Doreen, I welcome visitors from the world :)
    it's one of my passions!!!
    Earlier on my Sunday, i "played" with guests from a liner.......... And turned them into treasure seekers, brave adventurers! We all had a great time xx

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  3. One day, I shall visit you too, Nat. I really like this post, geopoetics at its best. Someone, I can't remember who, said "History is Geography" (now who was that?). But how about "Poetry is Geography"?

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  4. Hey, Sarah,
    I shall wait for your boat to anchor on my latitude :)
    Love your thoughts, lass!
    besides, you will love it, I have no doubt! I once found a sailor from Wellington at the West Ham who was chilling out in the sheltered waters of Mousa... Just opposite my village of Sandwick. Back at the time, I was guiding a party of Japanese folk on this offshore island.
    ...with selkies everywhere!!!
    Hmmm, just let me ken when you decide to anchor away from your tropical waters ;-)

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  5. Of course i will let you know! Our waters are not tropical though they may look sunny. We are born on the Southern Ocean, next stop Antarctica. Antipodean perhaps but perhaps as wild as your northern waters ...

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  6. Brilliant! And yes, I keep forgetting how "close" you are to Antarctica :-)
    Yes, we (too) have sone pretty wild waters around here!
    ...Although not necessarily as freaky as the roaring forties - but this is something we will talk about when we meet, lass :-)))

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