The Anglesey Diver

Our boat moves off across the smooth deceptive waters of the dock  
Clearing the outer wall sudden shock as we hit the waves  
Or the waves hit us like vast unhurried bullies about their task.  
Hurling silver spume around our heads as we scar the waters perfect symmetry  
With our vandal’s vessel cleaving her perfect form  
As though we had a right to disturb her
 
Forty minutes we watch in awe as engines roar  
Dolphins entertain with enchanted dancing  
Their perfect ballet riding our bow wave  
Like brave stallions prancing  
As lances of light flash from their gleaming perfection  
Their grace and beauty beyond mere words description  
 
Rhythm slows our hosts depart to find entertainment in some other part  
Shot line over the side now a smoother ride as silently we don our clumsy kit  
With ritualistic attention to every part of it  
 
I nod at my buddy, ready? Ready he nods we roll backwards  
To trespass in the ocean’s keep using her but never abusing her  
Swim to the shot line prepare to descend  
With only those who care, who dare  
Will she ever share
Her deepest secrets  
 
Darkest green our passage down, down to the rotting wreck  
Thirty five metres below where so few are privileged to go  
Torches on, strobe lights flashing  
Easy pace conserving air no sense in dashing  
 
She appears from the gloom where she has lain
Since she met her lonely doom  
Large ragged hole in her side testament to how she died  
And the martyred souls lost when the torpedo struck  
Now home to creatures wondrous great and small  
I gaze in wonder at it all  
 
Green/gray the tones of this pristine world  
Except the torch beam’s magic circle revealing  
Colours startling gay white orange red and blue  
Of every shade of every hue  
I float a metre above perfect buoyancy  
Weightlessly at ease in the stilled current  
 
Moving off to where once flew fulgent pennants  
Now the home of other tenants  
Fearless fish swim lazy through rails  
Into holds and other folds  
Our lights spearing gloom  
Reveals the jumbled engine room  
 
Down to the bow now descend to the sand large lobster objects  
As we pay him our respects this knight's armour darkest blue  
He scuttles away better he look for lesser prey  
We smile at each other with shining eyes  
Leaving him an unclaimed prize  
 
Check my air getting low almost time for us to go  
Around the starboard side we glide  
Past boilers lying at improbable angles  
Past fishermen’s nets hung ripped in tangles  
Back to the shot line feeling regret  
This was but a brief visit and yet  
I would not have missed this chance  
To visit this world of cold romance  
 
We ascend slowly, careful to avoid the bends  
Five metres below we stop  
Three minutes decompression before the top  
Out into the world of light and air waving to the boat afar  
Then lay back to enjoy the sea's sweet surge  
Raising, lowering holding us in her bosom  
Soothing my soul with her lullaby  
And a greater peace than I deserve    
 
Engine noise now in my ear the boat is near onto the lift  
I’m pulled clear with metallic clank and electric whine  
Back into the world of the Philistine  
Weather changes blows onshore cannot stay here anymore  
Puffin Island to play with seals  
I know from the past how great that feels  
 
These Labradors of the seas love to tease these mortal men  
Who come to play then come again  
Water just three metres deep  
Doesn’t matter in the least  
In company of each joyful beast  
 
They slide clumsy off the land to dart around on either hand  
The sea's their home but they never resent  
As their world we try to share
They frolic about us without a care  
Sneak up behind us and nibble our fins  
And so the playful time begins  
 
She nuzzles up please stroke my head I tickle her fat tummy instead  
They play at catch me if you can but I am just an awkward man  
Not a prayer! She gets bored looks around for more reward  
Off to play with someone else
She swims through weeds around rocks  
Returning to invite me to do the same
But it’s her sea and it’s her game  
 
To stroke this smooth wild creature to feel its soft supple fur  
The muscles rippling with power beneath her velvet skin  
Huge liquid eyes give a puppy stare  
And large canine teeth  
That could rip a man apart if they’d a mind to  
But they never do  
 
Time to go I take a bearing thank you gentle seals for sharing  
Back to the boat all kit a-clatter everyone’s excited chatter  
Look I got a photograph of this one right in your face  
We're alive with the joy of this wondrous place  
I’ll return again in early spring  
Once more to feel my glad heart sing  
 
Back in the harbour feeling happy feeling sad  
For the end of the beauteous day we've had  
And even before it's over  
I'm desolate to leave my lover  
The sea