Formerly an actress, Kate Firth is a voice coach based in Barcelona. She has had poems published in various anthologies and magazines. Passionate about poetry as an oral as well as written tradition, she has performed at Bristol, Cheltenham and Winchester poetry festivals.
Crackington Haven on New Year’s Eve
At the twist of the year, watching the whirl
of the world on the cliffs, a chaos of waves
flail in the sky, as the heavens weave
pearly curls of ivory. This storm
is skirring your ragged December
through pebbles between your feet. Bubbling
suds creep to your ankles, the ooze
sucking the scum of your failures
back to the source. From the brook by the bridge,
fresh water pumps up in funnels
to skitter a river into the salt. Watching
this meeting of waters and ferment,
you ponder the froth unable to fathom
the moment the stream stops being a stream
and succumbs to a vastness of sea.
Kate Firth
Previously published in Poems for a Liminal Age, Sentinel Publishing
(Ed. Mandy Pannett, SPM Publications, 2015)