Moon Spin
Once, walking on Caswell Bay at dusk with my dog, I saw (or thought I saw) a woman dressed in white walking towards the sea. I looked away as I threw a stick for the dog and when I looked up again she was gone. The image stayed with me, although after a while I decided it must have been my imagination or a trick of the light. Nevertheless I couldn't resist writing a poem based on this imaginary figure and later I turned it into a song. It's about a ghost of a woman who committed suicide by drowning and each year, on the anniversary, re-enacts the event and walks into the sea. Of course she doesn't realise that she's a ghost, but she realises that something is not quite right.
Many years later I discovered, thanks to the internet, that Caswell Bay is reputed to be haunted by "The White Lady". The story is of course very different, but I often wonder whether what I saw was a trick of the light or something else.
Now you are walking along the sea shore
And your feet have a mind of their own
They walk to the beat of your love on the sheets
But that is all left in your home
And the sea holds out a hand made of glass
Which shatters to sand in the wind
And you wish you knew what was happening to you
But still you can't see the moon spin
Still you can’t see,
Still you can’t see,
Still you can't see the moon spin
Your mind is a maze and your mouth is quite dry
And your eyes are misted yet clear
For your love it is dead and your feet are like lead
But alone you have nothing to fear
And the moon in the sky echoes your cry
As you turn your head from the thing
That's making you sad like your love that's turned bad
But still you can't see the moon spin
Still you can't see
Still you can’t see
Still you can’t see the moon spin
Now your face is alight with a primitive fright
As your heart takes a ride on the sea
Your hands are of bone, they're uncovered and bare
Twisted in an unspoken plea
And the sand scrapes your eyes as you turn in surprise
To the sound of music on tin
And your ears turn deaf to the sound of your breath
As still you can't see the moon spin
Still you can't see
Still you can’t see
Still you can’t see the moon spin
Your body is numb and you can't feel the wind
Or even the sting of the spray
As a strange figure, unknown, beckons you on
And caught in her spell you obey
And now you are free as the shimmering sea
Opens and closes back in
And you look at the sky and you no longer cry
And now you can see the moon spin
And now you can see
Now you can see
Now you can see the moon spin