Last year we visited Land’s End. I share my love for capturing light with our daughter, but where I see photos, she sees it all in words. And as we watched the storm roll in together, I knew we would both remember this shared time together at the end of the land, where sea and earth meet.

land’s end
the crushing ocean swells and churns in spite,
heaving with spittle. flocks of seagulls flee—
waves blister open; crown the sea with white.

while clifftops tremble, stones groaning in fright,
abrasion bites; reducing rocks to scree,
the crushing ocean swells and churns in spite.

shuddering with sodden air, in pure delight
the wind roars back, and swathes of sky agree.
waves blister open; crown the sea with white.

and on the spit-smoothed clifftops now alight
colonies of gulls, still bristling with the sea.
the crushing ocean swells and churns in spite.

the sky comes smashing downwards from its height—
as cloud banks blitz the ocean with debris
waves blister open; crown the sea with white.

and sheets of rain fall blindly into night,
tides rumble on in seething symphony,
the crushing ocean swells and churns in spite,
waves blister open; crown the sea with white.

Ella Standage