Norman Ackroyd CBE RA, The Noup of Ness, Etching
for Norman Ackroyd CBE RA
The etcher’s hand
frets across the plate,
piloting the currents
in rhythm with the keel heave
of the mind's eye.
Out in the gales
he gauges his sketches
atop the cockpit of the boat,
measuring off the rocks
and holding steady,
from thumb to eye.
But here above the world,
where the day's haul hangs dry,
pine resin mists
over the printer's notches,
forming the showers
from which the tick of gulls
are shaped,
cutting through the gale
they dive below the surface
of the copper sea,
until submerged beneath
the press’s wheel,
they reappear with inky cries,
echoing into the edge of everything.
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