World Ocean Radio 1/1/25: At the Fishhouses

Host: Peter Neill
Producer: Trisha Badger

ABOUT THIS EPISODE
This week on World Ocean Radio we share our yearly reading of Elizabeth Bishop’s poem At the Fishhouses. In its richly-detailed mastery, it distills Bishop’s seaside meditations, evokes the clarity of meaning contained in personal encounters at the shore and with the ocean, and holds the reader and the listener in the space that lies between land and sea, a site of transience, mystery, and the sublime.

At the Fishhouses is a clear favorite for the New Year. We hope it is for you, too, whether you are revisiting a reading or are hearing it for the first time. It speaks to all of us that dwell at the water’s edge, in a physical space or merely in the mind.

Cold dark deep and absolutely clear,
element bearable to no mortal,
to fish and to seals . . .

Happy New Year from World Ocean Radio and World Ocean Observatory.

The sea connects all things.

WORLD OCEAN RADIO
5-minute weekly insights dive into ocean science, advocacy and education hosted by Peter Neill, lifelong ocean advocate and maritime expert. A catalog of more than 700 episodes offer perspectives on global ocean issues and viable solutions, and celebrate exemplary projects. Available for RSS feed and for broadcast by college and community radio stations worldwide. You will also find this week’s World Ocean Radio episode at Exchange.prx.org, at Audioport.org, WorldOceanObservatory.org where the full catalog of episodes is searchable by theme, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

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