An Antarctic tsunami
I loved the slowly growing momentum of this vast wave, though one has to hope it would never make landfall,...
Tempest-haunting birds
I picture scurf-surfing cormorants and carrion birds buffeted by winds in anticipation of sailors' corpses washing up on the wind-blasted...
Crab-nibbled corpse
Poor, dead, ugly bird, corpse nibbled by crabs and devoured by fish. For a stunning description of this peculiar, prehensile...
Crab-green water
I think I can imagine the shade of 'crab-green', a deep dark place where this wily old conger eel escapes...
Spring-time clothes
A thrilling image of glittering northern waters in a moment of calm and gentleness.
'Crossing from Scalpay in...
Thalassa, thalassa
Osip Mandelstam is a favourite poet whose prose I only recently discovered. His Journey to Armenia is a marvelous, textured complement to...
Many-coloured sea
This simple line from a journal, a near haiku of beauty.
'The moon, a many-coloured sea and sky.' ...
As subtle as scent
A simple simile. While some scents are not subtle, my husband's endeavours to teach me the mysteries of wine aromas...
The tide running with you and the sun out
How many times I've read about exploration, about getting in a boat or a ship and chancing it, and yet...
Wave-girt land
A little old-fashioned, this 'girt', but still an unexpected way to speak of an island, focusing more on its surrounding...
Peat-dark waves
A description of wild swans floating on the night sea. I like that Maxwell uses peat, a local material, to...
The hugeness of the sea
Being half in love and half terrified of the sea, I also have to suppress the thought of its vastness...
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