I love the sea, so I have always been very fond of this Norse myth of red monkeys under the ocean feeding iron bars to the serpent. They did this because when the world was made it was too heavy, so the serpent was given the task of coiling around it to keep it together. However, the serpent would get hungry so the red monkeys were given the chore of feeding it iron bars to stop it uncoiling in search of food, as that would have been disastrous!
SAIL AWAY TO NOWHERE
Little boat
On the horizon
Sailing away to nowhere
Rough winds
Send you skirling
Across impatient waters
Fiery suns
Smash colour rainbows
Into the roaring silence
Darkening skies
Threaten spiteful rain
To savage and to sink you
Under the ocean
Red monkeys feed iron bars
To the world’s serpent
Respect the serpent
Whose coils save the world
From abrupt and violent ending
Little boat, come home
Steer quietly into safe harbour
Where I am always waiting
To sail away to nowhere.
© Gwen Grant
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Poems by Gwen Grant 