9 August 2026

By Philip Kuepper

The rowers’ muscles ripple
as they row
their gigs in the race,
held annually
in the sea off St. Mary’s,
among the Scilly Isles,
gigs, the shells
that, in the past, would race
to meet arriving ships
and guide them to port,
when pilot boats were otherwise occupied.
The gigs would take on cargo
from the ships, and the men
would ripple it ashore.
This was how the rowers would
earn their living, when the world
was more waterbound,
when freight was brought
by ships, and not by air,
when seas were freighted
with connection, and communication
was by the stars, and not
by phone. So the women and men row, now,
in memory of how
things were once done,
keeping woven tightly
a thread of the past
in the fabric of memory
making up the history
of a culture in its uniqueness.

(25 July 2026)