Song Of The Sea

This is a poem I wrote in the 1990's when they put the moratorium on the cod fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador. I remember when we got the news about the moratorium I felt so sad as I sat in my seat in the Labrador College in Cartwright Labrador. The poem is titled.

                                                                                                Song Of The Sea

                                                                         Where are the fishermen in from the sea, 
                                                    
                                                                          Dancing their jigs in the old schoolhouse

                                                                          Eating fish-n-brewis before dawn


                                                                          Where are the children

                                                                          tasting the salt tails of the fish

                                                                           as they spread them on the flakes,

                                                                           Wives hanging clothes on lines

                                                                            in the warm sunshine


                                                                            Where are the fishing boats

                                                                            with groove worn gunnels

                                                                            from jigger lines
                                                          
                                                                            Nets just taken from the ocean

                                                                            kelp still clinging to the mesh

                                                                            lying on the wharf


                                                                            Where have the codfish gone?

                                                                            Oh lonely village, weatherbeaten,

                                                                            gray, ghostly,

                                                                            No more laughter or old-fashioned times

                                                                            Old man telling his stories no more.