Inspired by the Gold Of Our Oceans
CULTURE / BLUE BIOECONOMY
Poetry: Tom Morton
Photographs: Jonathan Laurence
July 2020
Seaweed. The gold of our oceans, the treasure by our shores. In abundance and sustainable. Over 20.000 known species of marine algae, brown, red and green that hold promises of new generations of foods, fuels, plastics, fertilizers, medicines and medical products, biologically active nutraceutical cosmetics and so much more.
As stated in one of the articles below, the term Seaweed falls far short of adequately describing the sophistication of what is one of the key biological systems on the planet and one which glues the biosphere together, sustaining all life in the oceans, uniting it with all life on earth and playing a critical role in the regulation of global climate.
From two places across the North Atlantic where seaweed has played a significant role for centuries, Tom Morton, a master of words from the Shetland Islands and Jonathan Laurence, a creative director and visual artist from Maine, pay tribute to Seaweed in poetry and photographs.
Tom Morton’s three part poem, written at Scotland’s northernmost point the Shetland Islands, is titled: Holdfast. A Sequence of Seaweed - a seaweed’s ‘holdfast’ being the root which anchors it to its inorganic site.
Jonathan Laurence joined seaweed farmers Colleen Francke and husband Brent Nappi on their boat, the Linda Kate, harvesting kelp in Casco Bay, Maine with Ferris Nimen and Tollef Olson, one of the first seafarmers in the state. Colleen Francke is also the founder of Summit Point Seafood and the Salt Sisters Kelp Farm, both dedicated to women in recovery, a purpose beautifully explained on their website: summitseafood.com
All photographs JONAA©Jonathan Laurence
Holdfast. A Sequence of Seaweed
Naming
I rejoice in epiphytes and endophytes Epizoans and endozoans
Dabberlock and Bladderwrack
I will loosen
Dead Man’s Bootlaces
Catch the Oyster Thief
And watch the mighty Sea Oak
Creak, gripped by tides
And eddies
The underwater winds.
Peacock’s Tail and Thongweed
Hedgehog, Petals, Kelp
Landlady’s Wig, Black Scour, Harpoon
False Eyelash, Fried Egg, Creeping Chain
Clinging to rock, sand, stone
Weaving mysteries
Absorbing lost sailors
Covering sunken ships
And seeding mystery on mystery.
Slender Cartilege and Carageen
Creephorn, Golden Membrane, Corralina
Beware the Purple Claw
And look away
From the Erect Clublet
Or Dumont’s Tubular
Dulse, Pestle, Spiny Straggle
Strange, dull hysteria
In all these titles
Slender Wart and Shepherd’s Purse
Pestle, Norwegian Fan
Mrs Griffith’s Little Flower
Grape Pip and Pink Plates
Love, lust and laughter
We’re drowning in them.
Cock’s Comb and Discoid Fork
Branched Wing and Straggly Bush
Laver, Dulse and Spongeweed
These are the coldwater names
Atlantic, North Sea
Dead Men’s Fingers
Mermaids’ Tresses
Reaching to enfold
Caress
Submerge and hold
Never letting go
Holdfast
Holdfast
JONAA©Jonathan Laurence
Tangled
Uist tangle
Raked, hauled
Machair piled
Sea harvest
In soreness
Desperation
History
"Export. Saudi
Arabia," said Donnie
"Desert bloom
Racetracks grown
No fertiliser
As good as this.”
He turned
To the Atlantic:
“I see white horses
I see white horses."
JONAA©Jonathan Laurence
The Forager and the farmer
I will find beauty
Sustenance
For soul and gut
Fronds in pure
Clean water
But ready salted
I see opportunity
Advantage
Potential
Sustainability
A business
Can't fault it
Together, we
Will tend the coast
Nurture, grow
Income's flow
Remote and rural
Economies will thrive
Count
Me out, friend
I take only
What I need to
Grow, survive
To stay alive
They parted
Disagreeing
To agree
They dream
Separately
And never of the sea.
Tom Morton, 2017
All photographs JONAA©Jonathan Laurence
Thomas "Tom" Morton is a well known Scottish writer, broadcaster, journalist and musician. Author of several books e.g. the biography of Gaelic rock band Runrig, a whisky travelogue The Spirit of Adventure and several novels published on both sides of the North Atlantic. He has written as a journalist, staff reporter and columnist for e.g. the Daily and Sunday Express, The Shetland Times and The Scotsman and had his music show on BBC Radio Scotland for years. Tom Morton lives and works mainly in the Shetland Islands.
Jonathan Laurence is an artist and explorer based in Camden, Maine, deeply immersed and invested in his natural surroundings. His work invites the viewer to consider the natural world from alternate vantage points, revealing rhythms and patterns in the chaos of nature and the emotions of the atmosphere. His photographs, multimedia work, and installations have been exhibited in galleries and museums nationally. Jonathan also leads digital media and creativity workshops at institutions and art centers around the world, including NORD Photography in Norway and Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass, Colorado.
All Seaweed Stories
