A Poem Dedicated to former MOW Vice President, Alison Gent

Thinness

Thinness, as of a perfect edge,

reminds us by its narrows

of the breadth of Encounter Bay.

Two worlds, separated along a horizon.

Thinness speaks mysteries,

as of a knife edge on a clear day

is dazzling blue, is brittle, is sharp,

would slash open the vastness of sea and sky.

Thinness too, as cloud and sea converge

in winter light, is moist and muffled,

is comforting and still.

As grey and blue merge at sunset with yellow and pink

A scene of quiet sea and cloud

brings stillness over the bluff.

.

As the wave splash rhythm

insists upon our toes and our feet.

An intimation, not in the water, not out.

That thinness

lets down voices,

lets down elementals,

lets down a sense of grace,

of belonging to God’s other people’s country.

That thinness is a riddle of absences,

to ponder well.

At this Bay were many encounters, many.

Not just ours with the French.

But of those other observers, their sight of us

and the long ships

come in from beyond and through that thin horizon.

A meditation upon a sermon given by Canon Jenny Wilson