As part of our series bringing you poetry about Blackpool and written by Blackpool poets, local artist, writer and potter, Joseph Travis launches his own series within a series. Poetry by the Sea is a series of short poems with accompanying illustrations inspired by the Fylde Coast. Here Travis shares his first three on the theme of crabbing.
Crabbing 1
I remember as a child
My brother having a crabbing line
And I was so jealous
That I made my own
A length of string
And a smooth pebble
I tied the pebble into the string
Smashed open cockles
And muscles off the break waters
Then tied in the mush
Of shell and sea creature
And dangled it off
The sea wall where levels changed
I used to catch crabs
That were swept in by the tides
I remember just enjoying
Being by myself and doing
My own thing
With something I made myself
Crabbing 2
It feels unbelievable to me
That as a young child
I would go out by myself
Down to the seashore
And catch crabs in the sea
With bait found on the groynes
Tied onto my line
And pull them out of the water
Not really seen crabs in that spot
Not as an adult anyways
Now it is more civilised
Down by the boating lake
With lines bought from a shop
And cheap bacon
From a supermarket
And on a good day
A crab a minute pulled
Out of the water
And into a large bucket
Like catching fish in a barrel

Crabbing 3
A lifetime ago
When I was a different child
I used to catch crabs
With a line and bait
Down by the sea
They were small
Brought in by the tides
washing along the sea wall
Where they would find a meal
Only to be hauled from the water
Generally small things
Smaller than a child’s fist
But I remember one time
I caught a massive crab
The size of a meal
I got it in my bucket
A carried it to the prom
Where older boys
Tried to shoot it
With an air rifle
So we took it away with us
To my friend’s house
To keep it safe in a bucket
In his concrete backyard
But the next day it was gone
I never found out
What happened to it
I still wonder time to time
But won’t ever have an answer
Of what happened
To my giant crab
Read about what Joseph Travis learned by drawing for 2922 days here.
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