Author Topic: 100 years of the shipping forecast...  (Read 133 times)

Steve H

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100 years of the shipping forecast...
« on: December 27, 2024, 01:33:55 PM »
...which has inspired a surprising amount of music and poetry, in particular one of my favourite poems by my favourite living poet, 'Prayer' by Carol Ann Duffy:


Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.

Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.

Pray for us now. Grade 1 piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child's name as though they named their loss.

Darkness outside. Inside, the radio's prayer -
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.

----------------------------------------------

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/dec/27/100-years-of-the-shipping-forecast
"That bloke over there, out of Ultravox, is really childish."
"Him? Midge Ure?"
"Yes, very."

Roses

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Re: 100 years of the shipping forecast...
« Reply #1 on: December 28, 2024, 06:51:34 PM »
I remember hearing the shipping forecast most days as a kid. Living on a small island, surrounded by a choppy sea, it was an important news item.
"At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them."