Grace Notes for Amelia
Originally published in Poetry Wales 51.1 (2015)
Grace Notes for Amelia
On June 17th 1928 Amelia Earhart flew from Newfoundland. On June 18th she landed safely in Burry Port, becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. The first person to approach the seaplane was Dai Harvey Thomas. Apparently he did not understand her American accent.
1
Adventure is worthwhile in itself
it sets the soul off course.
Incongruous me: Amelia, Amelia
remind me of the hunger hour.
The cold framing
the sky indigo blue.
The motor’s madness
its dirge, its drone.
The plane’s shadow
against sea, against sand.
I am the corona on Venus
a name for planet 3895.
I am only a pulse
transmitting underwater.
Co-ordinates unknown
burial unknown, propeller gone.
2
Could it be that the woman from the sky
fell near yellow light to set my boat
the black pad, bobbing?
Could it be that the woman from the sky
fell near yellow light in miscalculation
to proclaim ‘Hello I am American’?
Could it be that the woman from the sky
fell near yellow light to place
Pembrey at the centre of the world?
Could it be that the woman from the sky
fell near yellow light to make language
pale on my tongue?
3
From Trepassy to this estuary
there is little comfort in clouds.
I flirt instead with androgyny.
Its necessity. I am cultish.
Coquettish, folded into
my leather jacket –
At passage with stars,
the lived below
is my panoptic.
Bargaining with dials
the rods, the pulleys
breathing into ignition.
Notional accuracies
mastered in metal.
And tell me stunned fisherman,
Do you really not understand
this transmission at all?