The Lighthouse Keeper of Ras Gombo

Gold cherry
Poem of the week

By Turlough

Thu, 27 Feb 2025
  • 302 reads
19 comments
 

 

The Lighthouse Keeper of Ras Gombo

 

Hopeful eyes skinned to glimpse

Dugong, dolphin and dhow

Surrender to darkness

When evening’s fiery Arab breeze

Blows away a crimson sun

 

The hulk ploughs on

Parting the Red Sea

A leviathan of coldest steel

From bulbous bow

Rise waves without sound

To ripple then kiss a waiting shore

 

Phosphorescence coruscates

In a never dying wake

Nature’s wondrous jewels

Scattered from her chest

Like a reflection of the stars

That glowed a million years

Veiled only by deserts’ dust

 

Yam Suph surrounds

To starboard, to port

To countless leagues below

Her cool depths drown my thoughts

Invite, feed my trance

A beguiling glittering prize

With whom I will sleep

And die in her coralline bed

Yet why, only sea nymphs know

 

Scintillations!

Imagined scimitars

Flashing from afar

A hermitic Eritrean

Keeper of Ras Gombo light

Where trimmed wicks

Where polished mirrors

For a score of decades

Saved souls of imperiled tars

Watches over me

And the ships in the night

 

This faceless friend on Assab rock

Assures me life prevails

In this darkest place

At this darkest hour

Taking two steps back

From my rusty rail

I know I’m not alone

 

Image: I didn’t manage to get a photograph of Ras Gombo lighthouse when I was there back in 1977 because it was dark at the time and I’d run out of flash cubes for my Kodak Instamatic camera. So here’s a photograph I took relatively recently of Shabla lighthouse, the oldest in Bulgaria.

Certificate 12
Poem
Poetry in Commotion
Surreal
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)
Autobiography

Comments

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

You draw the scene of such a duty vividly. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Thank you very much Rhiannon.

Turlough

Submitted by Schubert on

An accomplished piece Turlough, exotic and mesmeric. Reminded me of Masefield's poem Cargoes: Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ofir etc. where he used exotic words and tempos to mimic a sea journey.

Submitted by Turlough on

I'm rather envious of Masefield. Our cargoes were always something like wheat or bird shit fertiliser. You've got me thinking though as they could be the challenging basis of a future poem.

Many thanks to you for the commenting and reading of. 

Turlough

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

Fascinating and as Schubert says, it's mesmeric - I'd love to hear this one read aloud!

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Ah now, some the words might be a bit too long for me to get my tongue round. But I'll give it a try.

Ta very much for the berries.

Turlough

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

I just had to look up Ras Gombo, what an amazingly island with natural scenery and untouched beauty. It must be such a pleasure to be part of a place so special.

Your poem was stirring with a sense of how impressive the ocean can be. I also love your descriptions in that fourth stanza which summed up how you were feeling at the time. Such a mesmerizing compulsion, I can understand how the ocean would lure you in to its depths.

What makes this poem so special is the drama you've created. I could almost feel the oceans caress,

Jenny.

. 

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Unfortunately I never went to Ras Gombo. I just sailed past it in the night... three times actually during the course of my seafaring days. Those waters around the Horn of Africa are a dangerous place to be now. I doubt if I'd be falling into a trance if I were given another crack at the job.

Many thanks to you Jenny for reading this and for your much appreciated comment.

Turlough

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

The pleasure was mine Turlough.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

This splendid piece is our Facebook, Twitter and Bluesky Pick of the Day

Please share if you enjoyed it too

 

Submitted by Turlough on

I'm dead chuffed at that news. Thank you very very much IPFN.

Turlough

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I love this one! Read 7 times at least and will again it is FABULOUS

 

Submitted by Turlough on

That's a huge compliment Di. Thank you very much indeed.

Turlough

Submitted by celticman on

quite a place and time (past). 

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Aye, my life's just not the same these days without a lighthouse in it.

Turlough

Submitted by seashore on

Golden cherries very well deserved. I love lighthouses anyway, they fascinate me.

This piece is beautifully crafted. Needed my thesaurus to interpret some of the words I'd never heard of but I love words anyway,so sometimes the sounds are enough.

More poetry please, Terry x

Submitted by Turlough on

Your wish is my command, my coralline friend. More poems will follow in the not too distant.

Thank you for saying nice things about this one.

Tx

Turlough

Submitted by onemorething on

This is our Poem of the Week! Congratulations! 

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Oh that's great news! I'm really really pleased. Thank you very much indeed.

Turlough