14 May The Misunderstood Pirate: A Tale from the Og Diaries
The Misunderstood Pirate
By
Francine Davies
And
The Ogs
The Ogs are a Registered Trademark No. 2622780. Copyright Francine Davies
There is also an audio version of this on you tube. If you would like to listen to that please press here
The pebbles chattered as the sea rolled them in.
The air blew gently as if trying to sing.
The Ogs were pottering like an Og likes to do.
When a dot far out on the horizon suddenly grew.
Within a fraction of a second the dot came to shore
On a wave far bigger than they had seen before.
They tentatively approached the dot with great care
They looked to each other and then simply stared.
“It’s a boat” said The Ogs as they took a closer look
“Or a ship for a Pirate with one arm and a hook”
They looked all around but no one was inside.
Then looked out to sea say “Oh dear! Perhaps they are stuck in the tide”
The Ogs could see nothing bobbing up and down.
So they walked along the beach each holding a frown.
“What are we looking for?” Said one Og to the other.
“A Pirate of course! So stay close together!”
The Ogs walked in convoy looking all around
Chatting excitedly at everything they found.
“Could this be his boot?” said one of The Ogs
They were pointing towards the most enormous of logs.
“Oh dear!” They exclaimed! We’re in trouble here!”
“He’s a GIANT Pirate with huge legs we fear”.
The Ogs turned hearing the Children as they sang.
They rushed back to the ship as their alarm bells rang.
“Children be careful there is a GIANT Pirate! We all need to hide!”
“This is his ship it came in on the tide”
The Ogs pointed “His giant leg is right over there”.
The Children looked at each other then at the Ogs and then just stared.
“Ogs how could a giant fit in this toy boat?”
“That leg’s too big, too heavy, how would it float?”
The Ogs were saddened by their lack of imagination.
“Trust you Funny Folk to rely only on a silly calculation”
“Perhaps the GIANT Pirate carries his boat across the sea.”
That got the Children thinking where the rest of him might be.
“We know what Pirates look like” the Children declared.
“We have studied their history and we got really scared!”
“Pirates are dangerous and dirty!” They declare.
“They have tatty clothes and long straggly hair!”
“They stole and fought and lived out at sea”
“Their ship was their home and they lived for free”
The Ogs listened as the Children recounted their tales.
And were reminded that Pirates could be female”
“And they dressed in frilly shirts and wore lots of jewels”
“They took great pride in breaking all the rules”.
On finding a good spot The Ogs asked them to all gather round.
“Children we will tell you about a Pirate we once found”.
The Pirate we met was extraordinarily sad.
He was fed up with everyone thinking he was bad.
“Being a pirate is not what he thought.”
“He behaved really badly like he thought he ought.
“He did not want to steal or do anymore bad.”
“He didn’t want to upset folk and leave them sad.”
“He was desperately lonely and no body cared.”
“Folk took one look and he knew they were scared.”
“Who could blame Folk for walking away?”
“Or for looking down not knowing what to say?”
“He wanted friends who would teach him to be good”
“He was prepared to change so we did what we could.”
The Ogs knew what was needed to achieve just that!
They noticed an old chair so the Pirate was sat.
“We showed him what Folk saw when looking at him
He decided to shave and give his hair a trim.
They knew that people saw what they wanted to see
And may not see what the Pirate wanted to be.
“So what did you do?” The Children asked.
“Well we thought really hard then set a challenging task.”
We took the Pirate for a very long walk
And whilst we walked we had a good talk
We took the Pirate to meet some friends.
We walked him up hills, through rivers and round lots of bends.
We introduced him to Og Wisdom on the beach shore.
We proved to him that things can always become more.
“He met the Green Penguin and a family of Walrus.”
“If we open our imagination we can change how folk saw us.
“At first he thought we were being absurd.”
“But suddenly noticed some sticks that looked like a bird.”
“He saw what we saw and told us we were so clever.”
“So we carried on walking looking for new friends together.”
Listening intently something made the Children turn.
The looks on their faces caused The Ogs great concern.
“ What have you seen?” All the Ogs asked.
“Oh! Nothing we saw but what we heard as we passed.
They all were looking at the gorse bush all prickly and yellow.
The children were sure that it had just said Hello!”
The Ogs and the Children approached tiny steps at a time.
But before they reached it they had another sign.
This time it was the long grasses catching the breeze.
They were sure they had just heard the long grasses sneeze.
The Children laughed “We have found our Pirate hiding in bits.”
“His hair is the grass, his body is gorse, his legs are these sticks.”
They all let their minds run wild and free
“If everyone did it they’d be surprised what they see.”
“There are so many wonders on show for everyone.”
“And the more we look will lead to more fun.”
“Spotting the “Something” in sticks, rocks and features.”
“All trying to be noticed and trying to teach us.”
“Children it’s no different for each of you.”
“You are not one dimensional you are at least two.”
“You can be what you want to be and always can change.”
“Enjoy who you are and if unhappy re-arrange.”
“The Pirate may once have been misunderstood.”
“But now he is happy and can be found doing good.”
“Keep looking around you and noticing things.”
“Follow your imagination and see what it brings.”
With love from The Ogs
The End
Notes from the author.
This Lego pirate ship arrived on our local beach a couple of years ago 17 years after it had been lost at sea after a Japenese Cargo boat had crashed in 1997. Millions of pieces of Lego are continually being swept up on beaches. One container contained around 5 million pieces of sea-themed Lego.
Once i saw the boat my imagination started buzzing. I did not have my phone with me so I couldn’t photograph it. I grabbed the dog and ran back to the house picked up a couple of the Ogs and drove back down to the river mouth to take some pictures.
It took a while for the story to begin to formulate. In fact, it took several season of change before i felt my story had a START, MIDDLE & END. During the changing seasons new things would catch my eye as I walked the dog. This large bit of wood was amazing for its beautiful glamorous, high legged boot appearance. I started to imagine an enormous Pirate who owned a boot this big.
My greatest find was The Green Penguin and the Family of Walrus. These are pieces of old wood that have been eroded and polished over many, many years. I could not believe my eyes when i found them. I return to look at these beautifully sculpted pieces regularly as they are changing all the time. The Penguin is no longer green and less penguin’like and the walrus less obvious. I felt very privileged to have captured these that day. My poem was developing well making Nature the heart of it.
This picture was found after the poem had been finished and it reminded me of how wild and wonderful pieces of wood can be. It looked like a wild, untamed something….. a pirate may be?
The bird required me to find lots of interesting pieces of drift wood along the beach. This is always a fun job: creating thing from the findings on the beach. Most of my other stories start from a wonderful ‘finding’.
I hope you enjoyed the story. If you would like to hear more about the Ogs then either get in touch via Email: fd@francinedavies.art or click on any of the links below for more audio stories:
Everyone Wants To Be Remembered
The Mysterious Voice in the Rocks
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