Corbiere Lighthouse

Looking out across the sun kissed water

Sparkling away to the horizon to the west

Rising and falling in long slow swells

All the way from Canada across the restless ocean.

To the north in the heat haze, a grey smudge

Portland Bill with its sister guardian lighthouse

Seen on clear calm nights, flashing, warning.

Closer, a line of ships all shapes and sizes

Sailing to their destination in unknown ports

Cruises to the Mediterranean or the Caribbean Sea

Oil Tankers to and from the Arabian Gulf

Container ships built like the boxes they carry.

A ferry bound south for St Hellier and holidays

A fishing boat traversing the sea following shoals.

When fog like a shroud creeps over land and sea

The mournful cow sounds and is answered

Heard over all the island, disturbing the black crows.

Battered by winds straight out of the South West

It stands looking out at the sea and the ships

Shrugging off the spray and tasting the salt.

Still sending out its bright message of comfort

As the white yachts sail close in all weathers.

History has sailed by this tall white cylinder

One hundred and forty years of watching, noting

The changing sea and the changing ships

And the seasons pass in the fields nearby

Corbiere, the white knight of Jersey.

Eddie Gubbins