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?