NEAR THE SEA Fuchsia flowers red bells, purple tongued, and berries ripening, dangle over the lane. Suddenly, as I turn, carrying shoes up the reed-threaded slope, the hush of waves hits me with that sound of curlews piping. At the top starlings burst from under the cliff spattering like wild acrobats, to escape. Salt in the mouth, a taint of seaweed, the horizon levels to the eye -- a line like a blue sash and fishing boats, heavy with fish coming in with the day's catch. -- Kate Davis, artist and musician, "Extended Wings 5", Rathmines Writers, Swan Press, Dublin.