Ode to the coast

[Gob]

He can’t swim and by his own admission prefers to keep his trousers on at the seaside, but that hasn’t stopped Dr John Cooper Clarke from penning an ode to the UK coastline … with a bit of help from the British public.

Commissioned by the National Trust to celebrate 50 years of its Neptune Coastline campaign, the Nation’s Ode to the Coast began taking shape this summer when the poet wrote the opening verses of the poem. The public were then asked to submit social media posts that summed up their love of the coast, in the form of words, pictures or sounds, using the #lovethecoast hashtag.

More than 11,500 submissions were made, which Cooper Clarke then used as inspiration to create the final poem, released in time for National Poetry Day on 8 October. A short film to accompany the poem was made featuring 17 of the contributors, who each read out a line. Cooper Clarke said he wasn’t surprised by the big response from the public for the project.

“Poetry is such a brilliantly reflective and inspiring way to motivate humanity to act,” he said. “The contributions I received were very inspiring, with some of my favourites being the actual lines of poetry that the public had written themselves. It’s great to see people using poetry to tell their story.”

Nation’s Ode to the Coast


A big fat sky and a thousand shrieks
The tide arrives and the timber creaks
A world away from the working week
Où est la vie nautique?
That’s where the sea comes in …

Dishevelled shells and shovelled sands,
Architecture all unplanned
A spade ‘n’ bucket wonderland
A golden space, a Frisbee and
The kids and dogs can run and run
And not run in to anyone
Way out! Real gone!
That’s where the sea comes in …

Impervious to human speech, idle time and tidal reach
Some memories you can’t impeach
That’s where the sea comes in
A nice cuppa splosh and a round of toast
A cursory glance at the morning post
A pointless walk along the coast
That’s what floats my boat the most
That’s where the sea comes in …

Now, voyager – once resigned
Go forth to seek and find
The hazy days you left behind
Right there in the back of your mind
Where lucid dreams begin
With rolling dunes and rattling shale
The shoreline then a swollen sail
Picked out by a shimmering halo
That’s where the sea comes in …

Could this be luck by chance?
Eternity in a second glance
A universe beyond romance
That’s where the sea comes in…
Yeah, that’s where the sea comes in …

[MajGenl.Meade]

"That's where the sea comes in"

[BoSoxGal]

Sometimes you hurt the ones that love you.

[wesw]

you know....

...the beach is really a lousy place to play Frisbee. it just too darned windy.....

[oldr_n_wsr]

You're not doing it right.