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The general word style of the first few verses is inspired by the Wallace
Stevens poem
Sea Surface Full of Clouds....
This is yet another tale of maritime woe. I feel a certain pride in adding
"The Dire Wolf" to
the list of descriptive phrases that aspire and fail to describe the sea....
it is, after all, one’s job as a writer, to try.
Some keys to the map:
"Isle aux Morts" ....Island of the Dead, of course.... a Newfoundland outport
"Tallulah Bankhead and Canada Lee" ....two cast members from Alfred
Hitchcock’s Lifeboat (1944), in which a dispirit group of people are thrown
together in a lifeboat after the sinking of their ship by the Germans
"The Dire Wolf" ....an extinct species of wolf, great-granddaddy of the
present-day version.... and title of a grateful dead song
"The Newfoundland" ....a species of dog indigenous to Newfoundland, known for
its extreme courage and strength. An excellent swimmer (with webbed feet!)
that has saved many an imperiled fisherman
"Gambier-Bleached" ....Gambier Village is situated beside Compass Point
Studios in the Bahamas
GD
Wallace Stevens link Sea Surface Full of Clouds
Dire Wolf link Canis dirus - Dire wolf, Wolfsource.org
The Grateful Dead link http://www.dead.net/
Isle aux Morts link Wright's Photos
The dire wolf was one of the most common predators of the North American Pleistocene Epoch. Much larger but slower than a modern wolf, this canine possessed powerful jaws and massive teeth that helped it crush the bones of its prey. Dire wolves lived in packs and often preyed on young and weak mastodons and mammoths. They became extinct about 8,000 years ago, perhaps because the large plant-eaters on which they depended also died out. Text from the St. Louis Science Center
Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944)
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