Brittany by Byron Beynon

A country of the sea

understanding a coastline of language

with a tangle of coves, pierced rocks,

bays struggling on a day of increasing rain

to survive with a changing atmosphere

as the camellias blossom

beneath an ever-permutating sky.

Armor, Point de Pen-Hir, 

Finistere, Carnac megaliths, 

an identity with the root of names,

moors yellow with words of gorse and sharp

broom, as a headland points

towards the legend of foam-flecked waves,

wine dark at evening, 

moving like summer's blood.

Byron Beynon lives in Swansea, Wales. Recent work has appeared in the human rights anthology entitled In Protest (The University of London and Keats House Poets).  His most recent collection is The Echoing Coastline (Agenda Editions).