Ships (in Leonard’s Yard) by Mike Jenkins
19th August, 2024
I wrote this mostly as a stream of consciousness and quite quickly heard the melody of Leonard Cohen’s song ‘Suzanne’ as the rhythm of the poem took hold, so I let it lead. I added the subtitle, ‘in Leonards Yard’ as it felt I was wandering about in his territory plus the connotation of shipyards seemed fitting. My Grandfather worked in the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast and my father and his brother-in-law both served on several Cunard cruise liners as part of the Merchant Navy in the 1960’s on ships such as the Queen Mary, the Queen Elizabeth and the QEII.
Feelings of being lost at sea, of leaving home and of returning, Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner, the image of Turner’s ‘The Fighting Temeraire’ all came to visit.
It’s a poem about loss, grief, death and of coming home to the heart of one’s enduring, primal identity.