A Name Painted in Blue, a poem by U.K. poet Tony Frisby
I appreciate the sentiment of the intro and poem and they are shared here with Tony’s permission. How nice to learn in the process of acquiring consent to publish that Tony has several self-published collections and a ninety-four page epic poem, Me, ME and Not Me, was published by Waterloo Press, 2014. / J.D.
How to find the right balance in a poem? How to deal poetically with the worst that mankind can inflict on itself yet at the same time avoid the accusation of voyeurism? And yet the worst must be told…
And so with the latest news that yet another boat-load of refugees from Africa has floundered in the Mediterranean I’ve revisited a poem in which I blame the innocent sea for a piece of wreckage… but, but, but …… what I’m really trying to say is that some part of me understands completely that screaming figure in Munch’s great work of art. Tony
A Name Painted in Blue
Gathering wood is easy after a storm.
Bits and pieces always litter the tide-line
and sometimes an enormous plank
or a stout tree stump will swell the heap
’til theres enough for a bonfire.
But now and then you’ll find something
that makes you shudder: a splintered oar,
a piece of decking, maybe a strip of ship’s timber
with a name painted in blue.
It’s at times like these you might hear the waves
chuckle to one another, or the wind
snickering amongst the rock-pools.
© 2018, poem, illustration and portrait (below), Tony Frisby, All rights reserved
TONY FRISBY was born in Ireland and lives now in England. Tony began writing poetry as a hobby in 2000. Soon afterwards, he started reading his work in public. By 2010, Tony had self-published five volumes of poetry all of which were voted ‘Book of the Week’ by The Brighton Argus. In 
2014, his ninety-four page epic poem Me, ME and Not Me, was published by Waterloo Press. His latest collection That Blue Pause was published in 2017. He is working on three further collections. Tony’s Amazon UK page and Amazon US page.
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