Ships, Dogs and the Passing Tide: Poems of Loyalty, Loss and the Sea

Ships, Dogs and the Passing Tide is a collection of poems about loyalty, courage, memory and loss, told through two enduring companions of human history: the ship and the dog.
The sea has always demanded something from those who venture upon it. Ships carry sailors into storms, across oceans and towards horizons that promise both adventure and danger. They also carry memories. Old trawlers, frigates, cutters and working vessels become more than machines; they are repositories of lives, friendships, hardship and duty. Their fading wakes mark the passing of an age in which seamanship, endurance and service were measured not by convenience but by necessity.
The maritime poems in this collection (each with their own watercolour image) look back upon that world with affection and, at times, sorrow. They speak of watch-bells sounding through the night, of ships labouring against heavy seas, of fishermen making one more voyage, and of naval vessels carrying their crews across oceans. They remember the shipyards, the harbours and the men and women whose lives were bound to the sea. Above all, they consider what is lost when ships disappear from the water and the traditions surrounding them are allowed to fade.
Yet the sea is not merely a place of loss. It is also a keeper of memory. Every vessel leaves a wake, and every wake eventually disappears. The same is true of human lives.
The collection then turns from ships to dogs, but the change is less dramatic than it first appears. The dog, like the ship, is a creature of loyalty and service. The working hound, the farm dog, the police and military dog, the rescued pup and the faithful companion all possess a quality that needs no explanation: they remain when others might leave.
The tide goes out. Some poems are humorous, celebrating the absurd energy and uncomplicated joy of dogs. Others are quieter, exploring trust, rescue, companionship and the special relationship between a dog and its human family. The darker poems confront abandonment, suffering and the final farewell when an old and faithful companion reaches the end of its journey.
Running beneath both sections is the idea of the passing tide. Nothing remains unchanged. Ships grow old and vanish. Harbours alter. Watch-bells fall silent. Dogs grow old beside us and eventually leave an empty place where they once slept. Memories themselves seem to recede, like a vessel disappearing beyond the horizon.
But loss does not erase what came before.
A ship leaves its wake. A dog leaves its pawprints. A sailor leaves stories. A faithful companion leaves an absence that is itself a form of remembrance.
These poems therefore celebrate not merely ships and dogs, but the qualities they represent: courage without boasting, loyalty without calculation, service without expectation of reward, and companionship without conditions.
Ships, Dogs and the Passing Tide is ultimately a book about things that pass, and the things that remain.
The ship disappears.
The old dog sleeps.
But somewhere in memory, the watch is still being kept.

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Print ISBN: 9798194301126