Kipping Snorecast
(2025 sees the 100th anniversary of the BBC’s Shipping Forecast.)
When, wakeful, late at night I lie,
A welcome sound is “Sailing By,”
Its dreamy melody a sign
Which leads to Forties, Forth and Tyne
And Dogger, Fisher, Humber, Wight
All westwards of the German Bight.
Then Portland, Plymouth, play their role,
Biscay, Trafalgar, Fitzroy, Sole,
Until there’s nothing much beyond
Save nameless squares of Herring Pond,
Atlantic waters, dark and deep . . .
By which point I am fast asleep.
Laptop Luddite
Those pixels, allegedly green,
Can be fickle and vanish unseen.
To lose not a particle
Of draft verse or article
A ballpoint and pad beats a screen.
Jerome Betts lives in Devon, England, where he edits the quarterly Lighten Up Online. Pushcart-nominated twice, his verse has appeared in a wide variety of UK publications and in anthologies such as Love Affairs At The Villa Nelle, Limerick Nation, the Potcake Chapbooks 1, 2 and 12, and Beth Houston’s three Extreme collections. He has been featured in Light. British, European, and North American web venues include Amsterdam Quarterly, Better Than Starbucks, The Asses of Parnassus, The Hypertexts, The New Verse News, Per Contra, and Snakeskin.