“At sea-rim, sky-base, afloat somewhere between head (bone-dense) and shoulder, between blink or flinch and occasional shrug: the thick inward draw and effort of gyre, draught, push, pulse, pull… gar, mako, kraken… under threat of claw, spine, barb… flensed to wind spume, brawn paled to cloud roll…” Moored at port-side, we ponder the uncertainty of what lies ahead. We know there are dangers: the ocean, quiet for now; impenetrable fogs; beasts watching us, lurking in anticipation; perhaps only the monsters of our imagination, the destruction wrought by our greed and disregard for the natural world.

Text adapted from “The White – A Note on the Text” by Ian Gibbins originally published in e•ratio 26, 2018, inspired by Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick, or The Whale”.